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A.  Dean  and  Jean  M.  Larsen 
Yellowstone  Park  Collection 


F    731     .S2    1913    vol.2 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG  UNIVERSITY 


3  1197  22166  3179 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/historyofmonta021913sand 


STATUE   OF   WILBUR   FISK   SANDERS 


A  HISTORY 

OF 


MONTANA 


BY 

HELEN  FITZGERALD  SANDERS 


VOLUME 


ILLUSTRATED 


THE  LEWIS  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

(Not    Incorporated) 
CIIICACO  AND  NKW   YOUK 

•913 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


Wilbur  Fisk  Sanders.  (By  Judge  Henry  N. 
Blake.)  It  is  fitting  that  a  review  of  the  services  of 
Wilbur  Fisk  Sanders,  a  pioneer  and  builder  of  Mon- 
tana, should  appear  upon  the  pages  of  this  volume. 
The  important  task  of  the  writer  is  difficult,  not  from  a 
lack  of  material,  but  from  an  abundance,  and  injustice 
may  be  done  to  the  subject  by  errors  of  omission. 

Mr.  Sanders  was  a  son  of  Ira  Sanders,  a  native  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  Freedom  (Edgerton)  Sanders,  a 
daughter  of  Connecticut.  He  was  born  May  2,  1834, 
in  Leon,  Cattaraugus  county.  New  Vork.  His  father 
was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and 
the  infant  was  named  Wilbur  Fisk,  as  a  devout  tribute 
of  esteem  to  a  renowned  champion  of  the  faith  in  New 
England.  He  attended  the  Sunday  School  and  through 
his  religous  training  and  marvelous  memory  his  mind 
retained  manifold  texts  and  hymns,  and  few  clergymen 
and  no  layman  could  quote  more.  He  was  a  diligent 
pupil  in  the  public  schools  and  was  a  teacher  before 
he  attained   the   age  of  twenty  years. 

Mr.  Sanders  removed  in  1854  to  Akron,  Ohio,  the 
residence  of  his  uncle,  Hon.  Sidney  Edgerton.  He 
continued  his  labor  as  an  instructor  of  youth  and 
studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1856,  and 
was  a  partner  of  Mr.  Edgerton  in  the  practice  of  his 
profession. 

He  was  married  October  27,  1858,  to  Miss  Harriet 
P.  Fenn  of  Tallmadge,  Ohio,  a  daugnter  of  Joseph 
Fenn   and    Nancy    (Carruthers)    Fenn. 

Mr.  Edgerton  was  elected  a  representative  in  Con- 
gress in  1858  and  re-elected  in  i860.  While  he  was 
absent  in  Washington  during  his  first  term  Mr.  San- 
ders acquired  a  valuable  experience  in  transacting  the 
business  of  the  firm.  The  bombardment  of  Fort 
Sumter  resounded  throughout  the  land  in  April,  1861, 
and  the  law  office  was  closed  in  the  tumult  of  arms. 
Mr.  Sanders  was  among  the  first  who  obeyed  the 
patriotic  appeal  for  men  to  defend  and  preserve  the 
American  Union.  His  zeal  and  energy  were  successful 
in  recruiting  and  organizing  a  battery  of  artillery  and 
a  company  of  infantry.  He  received  a  commission  as 
lieutenant  in  the  battery,  but  was  transferred  in  Octo- 
ber, 1861,  to  the  Sixty-Fourth  Regiment,  Ohio  Volun- 
teers, infantry,  commanded  by  Colonel  James  W.  For- 
syth, by  whom  he  was  appointed  adjutant.  He  partici- 
pated in  the  battle  of  Pittsburg  Landing  and  other 
engagements  and  afterwards,  when  Colonel  Forsyth  was 
commanding  a  brigade,  acted  as  assistant  adjutant-gen- 
eral and  assisted  in  the  construction  of  works  for  the 
protection  of  railroads  south  of  Nashville.  He  was 
compelled  by  physical  disability  to  resign  his  com- 
mission August  10,  1862,  and  with  an  honorable  dis- 
charge returned  with  reluctance  to  his  home  in  Akron. 

The  career  of  many  persons  is  often  changed  by  the 
occurrence  of  events  over  which  they  exercise  no  con- 
trol, and  thus  was  the  destiny  of  Mr.  Sanders  deter- 
voi.  n— 1 


mined.  Mr.  Edgerton  occupied  a  conspicuous  rank  in 
Congress  and  was  appointed  by  President  Lincoln 
chief  justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  Idaho,  when 
this  territory  was  organized.  The  governor  of  Idaho 
was  clothed  with  the  power  of  defining  the  judicial 
districts  and  assigning  the  judges  to  them.  It  may  be 
observed  in  a  general  way  that  the  part  of  Montana 
east  of  the  main  ridge  of  the  Rocky  mountains  was 
embraced  within  the  boundaries  of  Idaho  and  com- 
prised the  third  district.  Governor  Wallace  assigned 
the  chief  justice  to  this  district,  which  was  undesirable. 

The  urgent  invitation  of  Mr.  Edgerton  to  "go  West" 
was  accepted  by  Mr.  Sanders,  and  the  long  journey 
from  Akron  to  Idaho  was  commenced  June  i,  1863.  In 
the  party  were  Mr.  Edgerton  and  wife  and  four  chil- 
dren, and  Miss  Darling,  a  niece,  and  Mr.  Henry  Tilden, 
a  nephew  of  Mr.  Edgerton,  Mr.  Sanders  and  wife  and 
two  children,  Miss  Gear,  now  Mrs.  Henry  C.  Harrison 
of  Harrison,  Montana,  and  Messrs.  Gridley,  Booth  and 
Chipman.  They  proceeded  by  rail  to  St.  Joseph,  Mis- 
souri, and  thence  by  boat  to  Omaha,  Nebraska,  where 
they  "outfitted,"  a  term  rarely  used  in  these  days. 
They  started  for  the  unknown  country  and  within  a 
brief  period  were  beyond  the  frontier  of  that  year 
and  pursued  slowly  a  tedious  course  with  six  cows  and 
four  wagons,  drawn  by  oxen.  When  we  look  at  the 
modern  map  on  which  has  been  marked  a  network  of 
railroads,  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  the  other  route  was 
upon  the  water  via  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama,  the  Pacific  ocean  and  the  Columbia  river. 

The  Indians  were  upon  the  warpath  and  the  trip  was 
never  free  from  danger  and  hardship.  One  of  the 
teams  was  seized  by  them,  but  recaptured  immediately, 
and  Mr.  Sanders  forcibly  took  the  whip  from  the  savage 
driver.  Deep  rivers  were  forded  and  high  mountains 
were  crossed  in  following  the  perilous  roadway  via 
the  South  pass  and  Snake  river.  On  the  one  hundred 
and  tenth  day,  September  18,  1863,  the  weary  homc- 
■-seekers  arrived  at  the  mining  camp  of  Bannack,  on 
Grasshopper  creek.  Lewiston,  the  capital  of  Idaho, 
was  the  objective  point,  and  Mrs.  Plassman,  in  a  sketch 
of  her  father,  says:  "News  of  the  recent  gold  discov- 
eries at  Bannack.  together  with  the  fact  that  the  season 
was  somewhat  advanced,  brought  about  the  decision 
to  go  north  from  Snake  river."  Vol.  3,  Contributions 
to.  Historical  Society,  p.  336. 

Little  was  known  of  the  mountain  ranges  west  of 
Bannack,  and  Mr.  Edgerton  intended,  after  the  enjoy- 
ment of  a  short  rest,  to  travel  to  Lewiston,  hundreds ' 
of  miles  away,  but  the  fates  decided  against  his  pur- 
pose. This  was  a  fortunate  epoch  in  the  history  of 
Montana  and  life  of  Mr.  Sanders. 

The  abnormal  conditions  prevailing  in  this  vast 
domain  must  be  noticed.  The  first  legislative  assembly 
of  Idaho  convened  December  7,  1863,  and  adjoumed 
February  4,   1864,  and  the  statutes  were  not  piblished 


851 


852 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


until  1865.  Theorists  have  dreamed  of  a  happy  country 
blessed  without  the  reign  of  law,  but  this  is  the  only 
segment  of  the  globe  where  the  experiment  was  wit- 
nessed. There  were  no  national  or  territorial  courts 
for  the  trial  of  controversies  or  persons  accused  of 
crime.  There  were  no  officers  who  possessed  the  legal 
authority  to  do  anv  act,  and  Mr.  Edgerton  did  not  find 
any  one  before  whom  he  could  take  his  official  oath 
as  chief  justice.  The  people  as  a  whole  were  citizens 
of  the  repubhc.  who  had  lived  in  the  states  where  their 
rights  were  protected,  and  met  the  remarkable  exigen- 
cies of  the  times  with  practical  remedies.  Voluntary 
organizations  sometimes  inflicted  punishment  for 
offenses  after  a  speedy  trial  of  the  criminal,  and  doubt- 
less substantial  justice  was  done.  The  miner's  court 
was  a  tribunal,  presided  over  by  a  judge,  so-called, 
who  had  been  elected  by  the  residents  of  a  mining 
district,  and  the  juries  varied  in  number.  An  appeal 
could  be  taken  to  a  meeting,  from  which  none  were 
excluded,  that  was  usually  held  on  Sunday,  and  its 
verdict  was  conclusive,  the  proceedings  were  based 
on  the  free  consent  of  the  governed  and  the  judgments 
were  executed  by  persons  who  assumed  all  the  func- 
tions of  a  rightful  official.  Lawyers  were  permitted 
under  some  restrictions  to  appear  for  parties  whose 
interests  were  to  be  adjusted  in  this  irregular  mode, 
and  Mr.  Sanders  at  the  hearing  of  his  first  case  gained 
a  reputation  for  eloquence  and  ability  and  won  a 
respectable  clientage.  His  residence  and  primitive  office 
were  at  Bannack,  but  the  discovery  and  development 
of  the  rich  placers  of  Alder  Gulch  occasioned  conflicts 
respecting  claims  and  demands  for  his  professional 
services  in  that  locality.  He  removed  to  Virginia  City 
February  6,  1864,  and  thus  within  five  months  after 
the  sojourn  at  Bannack,  Mr.  Sanders  was  a  leader  of 
his    fellow-citizens    in   eastern    Idaho. 

An  awful  chapter  in  the  building  of  Montana  must 
be  read  to  illustrate  one  phase  in  the  character  of  this 
pioneer.  During  this  eventful  period,  when  the  miners 
were  prospecting  for  gold,  murders  and  robberies  were 
perpetrated  almost  daily  by  an  organization  of  assassins 
who  defied  with  audacity  the  moral  element.  Their 
chief  was  Henry  Plummer,  who  had  been  elected  sheriflf 
of  the  settlements  within  what  are  the  counties  of 
Beaverhead  and  Madison,  and  his  deputies  were  mem- 
bers of  his  band.  This  election  did  not  have  the 
sanction  of  law,  but  its  validity  was  not  questioned,  and 
the  gravity  of  the  situation  can  be  readily  understood. 
It  was  a  serious  problem  to  solve,  whether  it  were 
possible  to  destroy  these  formidable  pirates  without  the 
aid  of  the  strong  arm  of  the  government.  These  out- 
laws in  number  and  record  of  unlawful  deeds  were 
never  surpassed  in  any  section  of  the  United  States. 
But  at  last  the  crisis  came,  and  the  decisive  combat 
between  the  good  and  the  bad  was  fought. 

George  Ives,  who  ranked  next  to  Plummer  in  the 
enormities  of  his  villainies,  added  to  his  list  of  mur- 
ders the  name  of  Nicholas  Tbalt,  a  German.  He  was 
arreste/1  by  citizens  of  Nevada,  and  a  graphic  descrip- 
tion of  his  trial  has  been  written  by  Dimsdale,  Lang- 
ford,  McClure  and  other  authors,  but  the  attention  of 
the  reader  will  be  directed  to  the  conduct  of  Mr.  San- 
ders on  this  momentous  occasion.  In  December  1863. 
Ives  sat  in  a  wagon  in  a  street  of  Nevada,  surrounded 
by  hundreds  of  armed  men,  mostly  miners,  who  were 
to  render  a  final  vote  on  every  question.  An  advisory 
jury  of  twenty-four  persons  had  been  selected  from 
the  districts  of  Nevada  and  Junction,  who  were  to  act 
in  the  first  instance  and  return  a  verdict.  The  defend- 
ant had  bold  and  desperate  friends  in  the  motley  crowd 
and  was  assisted  by  able  attorneys.  Mr.  Sanders  was 
the  principal  counsel  for  the  prosecution  and  performed 
his  great  work  with  the  highest  honors.  Let  others 
tell   the  wonderful  story. 

Professor  Thomas  J.  Dimsdale  wrote:  "The  hero 
of  that  hour  of  trial  was  avowedly  W.  F.  Sanders.    Not 


a  desperado  present  but  would  have  felt  honored  by 
becoming  his  murderer,  and  yet,  fearless  as  a  lion,  he 
stood  there  confronting  and  defying  the  malice  of  his- 
armed  adversaries.  The  citizens  of  Montana,  many 
of  them  his  bitter  political  opponents,  recollect  his 
actions  with  gratitude  and  kindly  feeling.  *  *  * " 
The  Vigilantes  of  Montana,  p.  93. 

Bishop  Tuttle  wrote:  "And  no  braver  act,  followed 
by  tremendous  consequences  for  good,  was  ever  done 
than  that  of  Colonel  W.  F.  Sanders,  when  in  the  moon- 
light of  December  21st,  1863,  after  the  miners'  jury  had 
given  their  verdict,  he  mounted  a  wagon  and  moved 
that  George  Ives  be  forthwith  hanged  by  the  neck  until 
he  was  dead.  It  was  the  supreme  critical  moment. 
Scores  and  hundreds  of  bold  and  reckless  men  in  the 
crowd  were  ready  to  organize  a  rescue,  and  equally 
ready  to  shoot  the  man  in  the  wagon,  had  they  not 
been  dazed  by  Sanders'  fearless  promptitude."  Remi- 
niscences of  a  Missionary  Bishop,  p.   123. 

Hon.  N.  P.  Langford  wrote:  "The  highest  praise 
is  due  to  Colonel  Sanders  for  fearlessness  and  energy 
he  displayed  in  the  conduct  of  this  trial ;  for  it  fur- 
nished an  example  which  was  not  lost  upon  the  law 
and  order  men  in  all  their  subsequent  eff^orts  to  rid  the 
Territory  of  the  ruffians."  Vigilante  Days  and  Ways, 
Vol.  2,   p.  76. 

Hon.  A.  K.  McClure  wrote:  "The  young  advocate 
who  thus  braved  defiant  crime  in  the  very  citadel  of 
its  power,  and  hurled  back  the  fearful  tide  of  disorder, 
was  Colonel  Sanders,  and  he  is  today  beloved  by  every 
good  citizen  and  hated  by  every  wrongdoer  for  his 
sublime  heroism  in  behalf  of  the  right."  Three  Thou- 
sand Miles  Through  the  Rocky  Mountains,  p.  394. 

After  the  execution  of  Ives,  December  21,  1863,  there 
was  a  thorough  organization  of  the  Vigilantes  and  the 
doom  of  the  road  agents  was  sealed  in  blood.  Mr. 
Sanders  returned  to  Bannack,  another  era  dawned  and 
eastern  Idaho  was  truly  saved. 

A  meeting  was  held  in  Bannack  in  October,  1863,  tO' 
discuss  the  policy  of  establishing  another  territory, 
and  Mr.  Sanders  was  a  member  of  the  committee  to 
obtain  the  cooperation  of  the  people  of  Alder  Gulch. 
The  mission  was  successful,  funds  were  raised  to  defray 
the  expenses,  and  Mr.  Edgerton  was  sent  to  Washing- 
ton in  January,  1864,  to  present  the  matter  to  Congress. 
The  result  of  these  efforts  was  the  organization  of  the 
Territory  of  Montana,  May  26,  1864,  and  Mr.  Edgerton 
returned  as  Governor. 

The  election  of  a  delegate  to  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives was  held  October  24,  1864,  and  Mr.  Sanders 
was  the  choice  of  the  Union,  or  Republican  party.  He 
made  a  gallant  canvass,  engaged  in  a  joint  debate  with 
Hon.  Samuel  McLean,  the  Democratic  candidate,  and 
achieved  a  brilliant  reputation  as  a  political  speaker.  It 
was  the  first  test  of  the  views  of  the  citizens  on  public 
affairs,  but  the  majority  were  opposed  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  President  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Sanders  was 
defeated. 

The  first  legislative  assembly  convened  December 
12,  1864,  at  Bannack.  A  joint  resolution,  approved 
February  6,  1865,  was  passed  appointing  Messrs.  Miller, 
Sanders  and  Stapleton  commissioners  to  codify  the 
laws  of  the  territory.  A  measure  of  importance  to 
all  was  entitled,  "An  Act  to  Incorporate  the  Historical 
Society  of  Montana,"  and  approved  February  2,  1865. 
The  first  meeting  of  the  corporators  was  held  Feb- 
ruary 25,  1865,  at  Virginia  City,  and  Mr.  Sanders  was 
elected  president  pro  tent.  The  permanent  organization 
was  effected  March  25.  1865,  and  Mr.  Sanders  was 
elected  president  and  discharged  its  duties  during  the 
succeeding  years  until  February  i,  1890,  when  he  re- 
signed. His  interest  in  this  society  never  abated,  and 
he  cheerfully  devoted  his  valuable  time  to  its  objects 
and  carried  on  an  extensive  correspondence  in  its  be- 
half. In  gleaning  fields  for  historic  materials,  he  found 
everywhere 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


853 


"Tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks,  ser- 
mons in  stones,"  and  to  him  each  stream  and  mountain 
"could  a  tale  unfold"  in  our  annals. 

A  feeling  of  unrest  was  manifest  among  the  Indian 
tribes  of  Montana  in  1865,  and  Mr.  Sanders  received 
from  Governor  Edgerton  a  commission  as  colonel  of 
the  militia,  a  military  title  by  which  he  was  afterwards 
known. 

Colonel  Sanders  affiliated  with  the  Masons  in  Ohio, 
and  upon  the  receipt  of  a  charter  joined  a  lodge  in 
Virginia  City.  He  filled  the  office  of  grand  secretary 
of  the  Grand  lodge  from  1866  to  1868,  when  he  was 
elected  grand  master.  The  addresses  which  he  deliv- 
ered as  the  representative  of  his  brethren  were  notable 
features  of  the  exercises  on  public  occasions. 

Colonel  Sanders  was  agam  called  on  in  1867  to  bear 
aloft  the  standard  of  the  Republican  party.  Before  the 
'  advent  of  railroads,  the  canvass  for  the  trust  of  dele- 
gate was  conducted  from  camp  to  camp,  hundreds  of 
miles  were  traveled  in  wagons  or  on  horseback,  and 
discomforts  of  all  kinds  were  endured.  He  was  imbued 
with  the  fervor  of  the  faithful  missionaries  of  old  and 
fearless  in  declaring  his  sentiments  regarding  the  affairs 
of  the  country.  We  confess  that  he  was  lacking  in  the 
qualities  of  an  adroit  politician,  and  was  as  guileless 
as  a  child  in  controlling  the  mechanism  of  American 
poHtics.  In  common  parlance  he  "called  a  spade  a 
spade,"  and  uttered  his  opinions  on  all  subjects  with 
moral  courage  and  regardless  of  the  consequences  to 
himself  or  his  cause.  He  entered  the  lists  single- 
handed  in  this  and  later  congressional  campaigns  in 
Montana,  and  was  commonly  called  the  "Republican 
War  Horse,"  or  "Old  War  Horse."  He  was  also 
nominated  for  delegate  in  1880  and  1886,  but  Montana 
continued  to  be  anti-Republican  in  its  partisanship. 

Colonel  Sanders  was  a  delegate  to  the  National 
Republican  Conventions  in  1868,  1872,  1876  and  1884, 
and  through  his  untiring  labors  the  right  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  territories  to  vote,  for  some  time 
denied,  was  upheld. 

The  tide  of  population  was  flowing  northward,  and 
in  September,  1868,  his  residence  was  fixed  in  Helena. 

In  1872,  1874,  1876  and  1878  Colonel  Sanders  was 
elected  by  the  voters  of  Lewis  and  Clark  county  a 
member  of  the  house  of  representatives  of  the  legis- 
lative assemb!y_  of  Montana.  He  brought  to  the  per- 
formance of  his  official  tasks  a  profound  knowledge 
of  law  and,  above  all,  an  earnest  purpose.  He  served 
v^ith  the  minority,  but  his  influence  in  shaping  legisla- 
tion was  second  to  none,  and  his  record  as  a  law- 
maker was  without  a  flaw. 

Colonel  Sanders  was  the  president  of  the  board  of 
trustees  of  the  Montana  Wesleyan  University  from 
1889  until  his  death.  He  sought  with  characteristic 
zeal  to  foster  this  institution  and  advance  the  cause 
of  higher  education.  He  also  acted  as  school  trustee 
of  the  district  including  Helena. 

The  admission  of  Montana  into  the  Union  was  fol- 
lowed by  dual  legislatures,  and  Colonel  Sanders  was 
elected  by  the  Republican  body  United  States  senator 
and  given  his  seat  in  1890.  It  would  be  a  gross  abuse 
of  the  privilege  of  the  writer  to  make  any  further 
statement.  His  term  expired  March  4,  1893,  and  he 
retired  to  private  life  with  the  esteem  and  confidence 
of  his  distinguished  colleagues. 

It  is  needless  to  remark  that  the  activities  of  Senator 
Sanders  did  not  cease  at  any  time.  He  attended,  when 
possible,  all  the  meetings  of  the  Society  of  Montana 
Pioneers,  and  served  as  corresponding  secretary  in  1884 
and  1885  arid  as  president  in  1888. 

The  public  library  of  Helena  was  strengthened  by 
his  intelligent  action,  and  he  was  a  member  of  its 
board  of  trustees  when  he  passed  on. 

Senator  Sanders  was  a  member  of  the  bar  of  the 
Territory  and  State  of  Montana  and  the  United  States. 
He   was   a   strong   advocate   of  the   cod'fication   of  the 


statutes  and  every  measure  that  savored  of  reform  in 
procedure  or  the  courts.  He  was  president  of  the 
Montana  Bar  Association  in  1885,  upon  its  organization. 

Senator  Sanders  was  a  charter  member  of  William 
English  Post,  Department  of  Montana,  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic.  He  was  unanimously  elected  March 
28,  1905,  department  commander,  and  with  the  com- 
position of  the  patriotic  order  for  the  observance  of 
Memorial  Day  finished  his  course. 

The  legislative  assembly  passed  a  law,  approved 
February  7,  1905,  creating  the  county  of  Sanders  to 
show  its  appreciation  of  his  services  to  the  people  of 
Montana. 

On  July  7,  1905,  the  brave  soldier,  sterling  pioneer, 
grand  orator  and  wise  lawgiver  fell  asleep  in  his  home 
in  Helena.  He  was  survived  by  his  widow  and  three 
sons,  James  U.,  Wilbur  F.  and  Louis  P.  Sanders. 

Senator  Sanders  was  a  leader  at  the  bar  and  upwards 
of  forty  years  his  resonant  voice,  with  a  melodious 
cadence,  was  heard  by  delighted  audiences  in  every 
hamlet  of  Montana.  It  might  be  Memorial  Day  or 
the  Fourth  of  July,  a  gathering  of  army  comrades 
or  pioneers,  the  exhibition  of  a  school  or  the  com- 
mencement of  a  university,  a  meeting  for  the  location 
or  the  construction  of  a  railway,  the  laying  of  the 
corner-stone  of  a  church  or  Masonic  temple,  the  com- 
memorative rites  of  an  old-timer  or  the  executive  of 
the  United  States,  an  assemblage  of  the  bar,  or  a 
banquet,  the  miners'  court,  the  justice  court,  or  the 
supreme  court.  He  was  ever  aggressive  and  independ- 
ent, and  his  battle  cry  in  the  heat  of  the  strife  was 
"No  quarter."  In  his  mind  all  things  were  upon  the 
same  plane,  and  he  showed  the  same  intense  spirit  in 
a  ward  primary  to  nominate  an  alderman,  or  a  national 
convention  to  choose  a  candidate  for  president  of  the 
republic. 

Let  us  dwell  on  a  trait  all,  especially  students,  should 
emulate.  The  favorite  abode  of  Senator  Sanders  was 
his  library;  his  reading  embraced  the  best  authors  of 
England  and  America;  knowledge  was  his  treasure 
house ;  his  memory  of  everything  was  wonderful ;  and 
his  vocabulary  was  unsurpassed  by  any  person  in  the 
state.  His  style  was  unique,  the  meaning  of  every 
sentence  was  clear,  and  his  ideas  and  illustrations  were 
clothed  in  felicitous  phrases.  He  handled  the  keen 
weapons  of  logic  and  satire  with  dexterity. 

Hon.  William  Scallon,  who  prepared  the  obituary  of 
Senator  Sanders  for  the  American  Bar  Association, 
wrote:  "He  was  noted  for  his  mastery  of  the  English 
language  and  for  his  eloquence,  his  power  of  invective, 
wit  and  sarcasm.  His  keenness  of  intellect  and  his 
powers  of  speech  called  forth  from  Robert  G.  IngersoU, 
to  whom  he  was  opposed  on  the  trial  of  a  noted  case, 
the  remark  that  'Sanders  was  the  keenest  blade  he  had 
ever  crossed.' "     Proceedings,  Vol.  XXVIII.,  p.  859. 

He  studied  diligently  the  meaning  of  words  and  the 
rules  of  grammar  and  rhetoric,  and  the  sentences  in 
a  letter  on  a  common  topic  were  framed  as  correctly  as 
a  document  of  the  highest  concern.  In  oral  arguments 
and  informal  talks  he  sought  likewiseto  be  exact  in 
the  use  of  terms  and  state  his  propositions  with  pre- 
cision. He  was  not  content  with  his  erudition  in  this 
regard,  but  consulted  often  treatises  and  lexicons  to 
improve  his  diction  and  strengthen  his  intellectual 
forces,  and  the  lesson  taught  by  this  illustrious  exem- 
plar should  be  remembered. 

The  observation  of  Cicero  in  the  essay  on  the 
Republic  is  worthy  of  repetition :  "Nor,  indeed,  is  there 
anything  in  which  human  virtue  can  more  closely  re- 
semble the  divine  powers,  than  in  establishing  new 
states,  or  in  preserving  those  already  established."  It 
was  the  rare  distinction  of  Senator  Sanders  to  illustrate 
both  attributes  of  this  exalted  character.  He  was  a 
soldier  in  a  regiment  of  Ohio  volunteers,  recruited  in 
1861  for  the  salvation  of  our  Union,  and  a  master 
workman    in    building    the    strong    foundations    of    our 


854 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


state.     The   Roman   orator   justly   lavished   his    wcahh 
of  speech  upon  achievements  of  this  grandeur. 

The  last  sad  rites  for  the  departed  were  witnessed 
at  the  Auditorium  in  Helena  on  the  Monday  following 
his  demise.  From  the  bar  and  press,  from  the  pulpit 
and  societies  proud  of  his  membership,  and  from  the 
people  in  everv  part  of  Montana  came  messages  ot 
sympathy  and '  gratitude.  In  Forest  Vale  cemetery 
Wilbur  Fisk  Sanders  rests  in  peace. 

•'O  good  gray  head  which  all  men  knew, 
O  Iron  nerve  to  true  occasion  true, 
O  fall'n  at  length  that  tower  of  strength 
That  stood  four-square  to  all  the  winds  that  blew! 

William  Andrews  Cl.ark.  Futile  were  the  attempts 
to  express  within  these  circumscribed  limitations  of  a 
sketch  of  this  order  all  that  Hon.  William  A.  Clark  has 
meant  to  Montana,  and  all  that  the  great  Commonwealth 
has  meant  to  him  during  the  long  years  within  which 
the  state  has  been  virtually  reclaimed  from  unsubdued 
wilds  and  fastnesses,  of  valley  and  mountain,  to  become 
one  of  the  splendid  Commonwealths  of  our  vast  national 
domain.  A  pioneer  of  pioneers,  a  man  of  courage  and 
ambition,  a  man  of  initiative  power  and  of  great  con- 
structive ability,  a  citizen  loyal  and  progressive  in  all 
things.  Senator  Clark  has  been  a  dominating  force  in 
the  civic  and  industrial  development  and  upbuilding  of 
Montana,  and  for  all  time  will  the  state  owe  him  a  debt 
of  gratitude  and  honor— a  debt  which  becomes  the  more 
a  matter  of  recognition  and  appreciation  as  the  long 
years  have  thrown  the  works  and  achievements  of  Sen- 
ator Clark  into  clear  definition  against  the  screen  of 
time. 

His  has  been  a  life  conspicuous  for  the  magnitude  and 
variety  of  its  achievements,  and  not  only  has  he  been 
a  distinguished  figure  in  the  history  of  the  territory  and 
state  of  Montana,  but  his  influence  has  also  transcended 
such  local  environs  to  permeate  the  national  life. 

It  is  not  easy  to  describe  adequately  a  man  who  is 
as  distinct  in  character  and  who  has  accomplished  so 
much  in  the  world  as  has  Senator  Clark,  and  the  neces- 
sary limitations  of  this  article  are  such  as  to  permit 
only  a  glance  at  the  individuality  and  achievements 
of  the  man.  Much  that  he  has  done  as  a  man  of  great 
affairs  and  as  a  citizen  of  utmost  loyalty  and  generous 
liberality  has  become  a  very  part  of  the  history  of  the 
State  and  Nation,  and  other  publications  of  more  spe- 
cific order  have  made  adequate  record  concerning  his 
activities,  on  which  score  the  sketch  at  hand  may  well 
be  offered  as  a  mere  epitome  of  the  career  of  its  honored 
subject. 

William  Andrews  Clark,  former  United  States  Sen- 
ator from  Montana,  claims  the  old  Keystone  State  of  the 
Union  as  the  place  of  his  nativity,  and  is  a  scion  of 
families  whose  names  have  long  been  identified  with 
the  annals  of  American  history.  He  was  born  near 
Connellsville,  Fayette  county,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  8th 
of  January,  1839,  and  is  a  son  of  John  and  Mary  (An- 
drews) Clark,  both  of  whom  were  likewise  natives  of 
that  county. 

The  paternal  grandfather  of  Senator  Clark,  likewise 
bore  the  name  of  John,  and  was  born  in  County  Tyrone, 
Ireland,  whence  he  came  to  America  soon  after  the  close 
of  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  and  established,  his  home 
in  Pennsylvania. 

The  maiden  name  of  his  wife  was  Reed,  and  she  was 
a  resident  of  Chester  county,  Pennsylvania,  at  the  time 
of  their  marriage,  her  parents  having  emigrated  to 
America  from  the  North  of  Ireland.  William  and  Sarah 
.Andrews,  the  maternal  grandparents  of  him  whose  name 
initiates  this  review,  were  likewise  from  County  Ty- 
rone, Ireland,  and  they  settled  in  Western  Pennsylvania 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  maiden 
name  of  Mrs.  Sarah  Andrews  was  Kithcart,  and  con- 
cerning the  family  genealogy,  the  following  data  have 


been  given :  "She  was  a  descendant  of  the  Cathcart 
family,  who  were  originally  Huguenots,  and  the  name 
was  changed  to  Kithcart  by  an  error  made  by  a  Reg- 
istrar in  the  transfer  of  a  tract  of  land.  The  Cathcart 
family  removed  from  France  to  Scotland  to  escape  the 
religious  persecutions  incidental  to  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  and  religious  difficulties  later  prompted 
their  removal  to  the  North  of  Ireland.  Subsequently, 
representatives  of  this  ancient  family  immigrated  to 
America,  where  different  branches  settled  in  New  York, 
and  Pennsylvania."  Both  the  Clark  and  Andrews  fam- 
ilies had  their  origin  in  Scotland  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury and  members  of  both  families  moved  to  the  North 
of  Ireland  during  the  seventeenth  century,  and  from 
there  came  to  the  United  States  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  In  all  lines  the  ancestors  of  Senator 
Clark  have  been  of  the  staunchest  Protestant  Faith,  and  « 
his  parents  were  most  zealous  members  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  in  which  his  father  was  an  Elder  for 
forty  years  prior  to  his  death.  John  and  Mary  (An- 
drews) Clark  were  reared  and  educated  in  Western 
Pennsylvania,  where  their  marriage  was  solemnized  and 
where  they  continued  to  reside  until  the  year  1856,  when 
they  moved  to  the  West,  and  numbered  themse.ves 
among  the  pioneers  of  Van  Buren  county,  Iowa,  where 
they  procured  a  considerable  tract  of  land  and  developed 
a  productive  farm.  John  Clark  was  a  man  of  superior 
intellectual  power  and  impregnable  integrity,  so  that 
he  naturally  became  an  influence  in  the  pioneer  com- 
munity, the  while  he  contributed  his  quota  to  the  civic 
and  material  development  of  the  Hawkeye  State.  He 
continued  to  reside  in  Van  Buren  county,  Iowa,  until 
his  death,  which  occurred  in  the  year  1873,  at  the  age 
of  seventy-six  years,  and  his  noble  wife  passed  the 
closing  years  of  her  life  at  Los  Angeles,  California, 
where  she  was  summoned  to  her  eternal  rest  in  1904, 
at  the  venerable  age  of  a  little  over  ninety  years. 

Most  gracious  are  the  memories  which  Senator  Clark 
associates  with  his  honored  parents,  and  the  filial  rever- 
ence in  which  he  holds  their  names  shows  his  apprecia- 
tion of  the  finer  ideals  of  life,  even  as  the  same  has 
been  significantly  manifested  in  many  other  ways  during 
the  long  years  of  his  really  wonderful  career  of  activ- 
ity in  connection  with  affairs  of  the  broadest  scope  and 
importance.  Concerning  the  earlier  days  of  the  life 
history  of  Senator  Clark,  the  present  writer  has  pre- 
viously written  an  estimate,  and  from  the  same  may  thus 
be  consistently  drawn  data  here  presented,  without 
formal  indications  of  quotation,  and  with  such  para- 
phrase as  may  seem  appropriate. 

The  old  homestead  farm  of  his  parents,  in  Fayette 
county,  Pennsylvania,  gave  the  environment  and  influ- 
ences under  which  the  future  United  States  Senator 
from  Montana  was  reared  as  a  boy  and  a  youth.  He 
early  learned  the  lessons  of  practical  and  consecutive 
industry,  through  the  assistance  which  he  rendered  in 
connection  with  the  work  on  the  farm,  and  his  rudi- 
mentary education  was  secured  in  the  common  schools 
of  his  native  state,  his  attendance  in  the  same  having 
been  during  the  winter  terms  only,  when  his  services 
were  not  in  requisition  on  the  farm. 

With  characteristic  prescience  of  the  value  of  educa- 
tion, the  ambitious  youth  was  not  to  be  satisfied  with 
merely  rudimentary  training,  and  thus  it  may  be  re- 
corded that  when  fourteen  years  of  age  he  entered 
Laurel  Hill  Academy,  in  which  he  laid  the  foundation 
for  a  really  liberal  education  along  academic  lines. 

William  A.  Clark  was  seventeen  years  of  age  at  the 
time  of  accompanying  his  parents  on  their  emigration 
to  Iowa  in  the  year  1856,  and  during  the  first  years 
he  gave  effective  aid  in  improving  and  tilling  the  raw 
prairie  farm.  During  the  winter  of  the  first  and  second 
years  he  resided  in  Van  Buren  county,  Iowa,  he  taught 
two  terms  of  district  school  and  thus  gained  honors  as 
one  of  the  pioneers  of  the  pedagogic  profession  in  the 
Hawkeye   State.     Thereafter,  he  attended  an   academy 


r:.  r — ,j  .-^i.'.s/, 


y 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


855 


at  Birmingham,  Iowa,  for  one  term,  and  later  he  was  for 
two  years  a  student  in  the  academic  and  also  the  law 
department  of  the  Iowa  Weslyan  University  at  Mount 
Pleasant.  To  the  fact  that  he  did  not  find  it  expedient 
to  engage  in  the  practice  of  law  it  is  due  that  the  broad 
and  masterful  career  of  a  man  of  affairs  in  the  Western 
World  was  not  subverted.  In  1859-60,  Mr.  Clark  was 
engaged  in  teaching  in  the  public  schools  of  Cooper  and 
Pettis  counties  in  the  state  of  Missouri,  and  in  1862,  he 
drove  a  team  of  cattle  across  the  plains  to  South  Park, 
Colorado,  in  which  state  he  gained  his  initial  experience 
in  connection  with  the  great  industry  of  which  he  was 
destined  to  become  one  of  the  leading  and  most  success- 
ful exponents  in  America.  During  the  first  winter,  he 
worked  in  the  quartz  mines  at  Central  Citj',  where  he 
gained  knowledge  and  experience  that  afterwards  served 
him  to  good  purpose  in  his  extensive  mining  operations 
in  Montana,  where  he  was  one  of  the  pioneers  in  this  line, 
as  well  as  elsewhere  in  the  Western  States.  In  1863,  the 
news  of  gold  discoveries  at  Bannack,  then  in  the  Eastern 
part  of  the  territory  of  Idaho,  which  was  afterwards  an- 
nexed to  the  state  of  Montana,  reached  Colorado,  and 
Mr.  Clark  was  among  the  first  to  set  forth  for  this  new 
El  Dorado.  After  sixty-five  days'  travel  with  an  ox- 
team  in  company  with  three  others,  he  arrived  at  Ban- 
nack, just  in  time  to  join  a  stampede  to  a  new  district  on 
Horse  Prairie  Creek.  There,  he  secured  a  placer  gold 
claim,  which  he  worked  during  that  summer  and  also  the 
following  season.  He  netted  about  $2,000  from  his  oper- 
ations the  first  summer,  and  thus  formed  the  nucleus 
of  >he  immense  fortune  which  he  later  accumulated  in 
connection  with  mining  operations  in  Montana. 

The  ensuing  five  years  in  the  career  of  Mr.  Clark  may 
be  rapidly  surveyed,  although  the  period  was  made  one 
of  push  and  enterprise  characteristic  of  the  man.  After 
two  years'  experience  in  placer  mining,  he  took  the 
advantage  of  the  opportunities  presented  for  trade  and 
business,  and  in  less  than  half  a  decade  he  was  at  the 
head  of  one  of  the  largest  wholesale  mercantile  estab- 
lishments in  the  territory,  the  same  having  been  built 
up  from  the  smallest  of  beginnings.  His  first  venture 
was  to  bring  a  load  of  provisions  which  he  purchased 
at  Salt  Lake  City,  in  the  winter  of  1863-4,  and  for  these 
necessaries  he  found  a  ready  demand  at  amazing  prices 
in  the  mining-camps  in  Montana.  The  next  winter, 
after  the  close  of  the  mining-season,  this  experiment 
was  repeated  on  a  larger  scale,  and  at  Virginia  City, 
then  the  centre  of  mining  activities,  he  found  the  best 
market.  In  the  spring  of  1865,  he  opened  a  general 
merchandise  establishment  at  Blackfoot  City,  then  a 
new  and  bustling  mining-camp,  on  the  western  slope  of 
the  Rocky  Mountain^.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year 
he  sold  out  his  store  at  that  place,  and,  having  noticed 
that  the  markets  were  bare  of  tobacco,  which  was  deemed 
then  one  of  the  necessities  in  a  miner's  life,  he  went  on 
horseback  to  Boise,  Idaho,  where  he  purchased  several 
thousand  pounds  of  this  commodity  at  a  cost  of  a  dollar 
and  a  half  per  pound.  He  purchased  a  wagon  and  span 
of  horses,  and  the  future  Senator  drove,  in  the  month  of 
December  when  the  weather  was  extremely  cold,  with 
his  precious  cargo,  to  Helena,  Montana,  where  he  sold 
out  his  stock  at  the  rate  of  five  and  six  dollars  per 
pound  to  ready  and  appreciative  purchasers.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1866,  Mr.  Clark  joined  a  stampede  to  a  new  min- 
ing district  on  Elk  Creek,  some  fifty  miles  west  of 
Blackfoot,  where  he  established  another  store,  and  did 
a  large  and  profitable  business.  In  the  autumn  of  that 
year,  he  disposed  of  his  stock  and  business  in  Elk  Creek, 
and  made  a  trip  to  San  Francisco,  via  Portland,  Oregon. 
His  route  lay  over  the  MuUan  Pass,  across  the  Coeur 
d'Alene  Mountains ;  thence  to  Walla  Walla,  Washing- 
ton territory,  and  thence  to  Wallula,  the  head  of  navi- 
gation on  the  Columbia  river,  at  which  point  he  took 
passage  on  a  small  steam-boat  to  The  Dalles,  Oregon, 
where  there  was  a  transfer  by  rail  a  short  distance  below 
the  rapids,  when  another  boat  was  taken  to  the  city  of 


Portland,  then  quite  a  small  town,  but  now  a  city  of 
large  dimensions.  From  Portland  he  took  passage  on 
a  steamship  to  San  Francisco,  where,  after  a  sojourn  of 
some  days,  he  visited  the  principal  towns  in  Central 
California,  and  at  Marysville  took  passage  on  a  stage- 
coach through  Northern  California  and  Oregon  to 
Portland,  at  which  point  he  purchased  a  stock  of  goods 
which  were  shipped  to  Montana  and  which  he  after- 
wards soon  disposed  of  at  a  fair  profit. 

Few  have  more  lived  up  to  the  full  tension  of  the 
pioneer  effort  in  the  history  of  Montana,  and  few  have 
shown  greater  initiative  and  versatility  in  progressive 
and  various  business  enterprises. 

In  October,  1866,  Mr.  Clark  made  a  trip  to  the  East 
by  way  of  old  Fort  Benton,  the  head  of  navigation  on 
the  Missouri  river,  going  by  "Mackinaw"  boat  to  Sioux 
City,  Iowa,  the  voyage  occupying  thirty-five  days.  After 
visiting  his  parents  at  his  old  home  in  Eastern  Iowa,  and 
the  principal  cities  in  the  East  and  South,  Mr.  Clark 
returned  to  Montana  in  the  Spring  of  1867,  and  he  is 
next  heard  of  as  a  mail  contractor  on  the  star  route 
between  Missoula  and  Walla  Walla,  a  distance  of  four 
hundred  miles,  and  this  venture  was  made  successful  as 
had  been  his  prior  undertakings.  His  next  move  was  in 
the  direction  of  a  wider  field  of  business  activity. 

In  the  autumn  of  1868,  Mr.  Clark  made  a  trip  to  New 
York  City,  traveling  by  stage-coach  to  Green  River, 
Wyoming,  vvhich  at  that  time  was  the  western  terminus 
of  the  United  Pacific  Railroad,  where  he  formed  a  co- 
partnership with  Mr.  Robert  W.  Donnell  for  the  purpose 
of  engaging  m  the  wholesale  mercantile  trade  and  bank- 
ing business,  in  Montana  territory,  a  connection  that 
resulted  in  the  founding  of  one  of  the  strongest  business 
firms  of  that  period  in  the  history  of  Montana.  They 
shipped  a  large  stock  of  general  merchandise  by  way 
of  the  ■Missouri  river  to  Fort  Benton,  and  established  in 
the  Spring  of  1869  a  wholesale  business  at  Helena.  In 
1870,  the  headquarters  of  the  enterprise  were  trans- 
ferred to  Deer  Lodge,  where  the  business  was  consoli- 
dated with  that  previously  established  at  that  point  by 
Mr.  Donnell.  At  this  time,  Mr.  Samuel  E.  Larabie  was 
admitted  to  partnership  under  the  firm  name  of  Donnell, 
Clark  and  Larabie,  and  the  concern  built  up  a  gigantic 
and  successful  business.  When  this  enterprise  was 
sold,  the  firm  gave  its  attention  to  the  banking  business, 
in  which  important  line  of  enterprise  it  conducted  suc- 
cessful operations,  both  at  Deer  Lodge  and  Butte,  the 
latter  place  having  at  that  time  been  known  as  Butte 
City.  In  May,  1884,  Messrs.  Clark  and  Larabie  pur- 
chased the  interests  of  Mr.  Donnell  in  their  Montana 
business,  and  subsequently  Mr.  Clark  and  his  brother, 
James  Ross  Clark,  assumed  full  ownership  of  the  Butte 
Bank,' after  the  former  had  disposed  of  his  interests  at 
Deer  Lodge.  The  banking  house  of  W.  A.  Clark  & 
Brother  is  still  in  existence,  and  has  become  one  of  the 
strongest  banking  institutions  of  the  West,  with  a  busi- 
ness centered  in  the  Montana  metropolis. 

It  is,  however,  in  his  mining  investments,  and  in  the 
operation  of  vast  mills  and  smelters  for  the  treatment 
of  basic  ores  that  Mr.  Clark  has  gained  his  phenomenal 
success  and  become  known  as  one  of  the  greatest  mining" 
men  of  the  nation  and  of  the  world,  the  while  he  has 
contributed  through  his  activities  in  these  lines  a  greater 
quota  to  the  development  and  progress  of  Montana  than 
has  any  other  one  person  of  the  period.  The  quartz  mine 
prospects  in  the  vicinity  of  Butte  first  attracted  the 
attention  of  Senator  Clark.  In  the  years  1872-73,  he 
purchased,  in  whole  or  in  part,  the  Colusa,  Original, 
Mountain  Chief,  Gambetta,  and  other  mines,  nearly  all 
of  which  later  proved  to  be  exceedingly  rich  producers. 
A  marked  characteristic  in  the  career  of  Mr.  Clark  is, 
that  he  has  never  entered  upon  a  project  without  fortify- 
ing himself  thoroughly  by  the  fullest  available  informa- 
tion pertaining  thereto.  This  wise  policy  has  been  an 
unmistakable  power  in  furthering  his  success,  and  was 
significantly   shown   at   the   time   when   he   initiated   his 


856 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


mining  operations,  although  his  attitude  and  actions 
aroused  not  a  little  scepticism  on  the  part  of  the  pioneer 
and  practical  mining  men  of  the  territory  when  he  de- 
cided to  pass  the  winter  of  1872-3  at  the  School  of 
Mines  at  Columbia  University  in  New  York  City.  There, 
he  took  a  course  of  practical  assaying  and  analysis,  with 
a  general  outline  of  mineralogy  and  metallurgy,  and  the 
information  thus  gained  proved  of  inestimable  value  to 
him  in  his  future  and  great  mining  operations.  He  has 
never  been  a  "plunger,"  in  any  of  his  ventures,  and  his 
success  in  the  domain  of  mining  industry  has  been  the 
result  of  careful  investigation  and  consideration  of  every 
prospect  and  project  with  which  he  has  identified  him- 
self, and  in  connection  with  which  he  has  made  a  repu- 
tation that  extends  beyond  our  national  boundaries. 
Through  the  financial  interposition  of  Mr.  Clark,  one  of 
the  first  stamp  mills  of  Butte,  the  "Old  Dexter,"  was 
completed  and  placed  in  operation  in  the  winter  of 
1876-7.  The  first  smelter  of  importance  in  the  city  was 
erected  by  the  Colorado  and  Montana  Mining  and 
Smelting  Company,  which  was  organized  by  Mr.  Clark 
in  connection  with  Senator  Hill  and  Professor  Pearce, 
of  Denver,  Colorado,  and  was  one  of  the  leading  enter- 
prises of  the  kind  in  the  Montana  metropolis,  Mr. 
Clark  being  Vice-President  and  one  of  the  largest  stock- 
holders of  the  corporation.  In  1880,  he  organized  the 
Moulton  Mining  Company,  which  forthwith  erected  the 
Moulton  Mill,  upon  a  mine  by  that  name  which  he  had 
located  several  years  before.  This  company  built  a  com- 
plete dry-crushing  and  chloridizing  mill  of  forty  stamps, 
a  three-compartment  shaft  was  sunk,  and  modern  pump- 
ing and  hoisting  works  were  installed,  the  property 
having  been  thoroughly  explored  at  a  cost  of  about  $500,- 
000,  including  the  mill.  This  mine  and  mill  were  in 
successful  operation  for  many  years,  and  until  the  de- 
cline in  the  price  of  silver  rendered  the  business  no  longer 
profitable.  Mr.  Clark  and  his  son,  Charles  W.  Clark, 
owned  the  Butte  Reduction  Works,  and  were  the  inter- 
ested principals  in  the  Colusa  Parrot  Mining  and  Smelt- 
ing Company,  and  controlled  several  other  silver  and 
copper  mines  in  the  Butte  district.  Besides  his  interests 
in  these  corporations,  Mr.  Clark  has  large  individual 
holdings  in  the  mines,  which  are  being  successfully  ope- 
rated, affording  employment  to  a  large  number  of  men. 
In  connection  with  his  son,  W.  A.  Clark,  Jr.,  they  are  now 
constructing  a  large  concentrating  plant  for  the  treat- 
ment of  ores  from  the  Elm  Orlu  Mine,  near  Butte, 
which  has  proven  to  be  one  of  the  largest  zinc  and  cop- 
per mines  in  the  world,  the  ores  containing,  in  addi- 
tion, considerable  silver  and  a  small  quantity  of  gold. 
This  mine  they  have  been  developing  for  several  years, 
and  have  reached  a  depth  of  1,500  feet,  Mr.  Clark  also 
owns  valuable  mining  properties  in  the  States  of  Utah, 
Idaho,  and  Arizona,  and  amongst  the  most  important 
of  these  is  that  of  the  United  Verde  Copper  Company, 
in  Arizona,  of  which  he  is  virtually  the  sole  owner,  and 
which  has  been  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  mining 
world.  It  is  probably  the  richest  and  most  extensive 
copper  mine  in  the  world,  and  the  facilities  for  the 
treatment  of  its  ores  are  of  the  best  modern  type,  includ- 
ing immense  smelting  and  refining  plant.  He  is  now 
constructing  a  new  smelting-plant  at  the  new  town  of 
Clarkdale  on  the  Verde  river,  six  miles  from  Jerome, 
where  the  mines  are  situated,  at  a  cost  of  several  million 
dollars,  which  when  completed  will  be  one  of  the  largest 
and  most  up-to-date  plants  in  the  world.  In  connection 
with  this  mine  he  built  the  United  Verde  and  Pacific 
Railroad,  which,  although  only  26  miles  in  length,  is  a 
marvel  of  engineering  skill.  He  also  advanced  the  funds 
to  build  the  new  road  from  a  point  on  the  Santa  Fe 
Railroad  System,  forty  miles  in  length,  extending  to 
the  new  town  of  Clarkdale,  where  the  new  plant  is  being 
built. 

Mr.  Clark  now  holds  monetary  and  industrial  inter- 
ests across  the  entire  continent,  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  he  has  large  interests  in  addi- 


tion to  those  already  mentioned,  including  properties  in 
Colorado  and  New  Mexico,  comprising  coal-mines,  and 
also  owns  a  large  granite  quarry  at  North  Jay,  in  the 
State  of  Maine.  He  owns  and  controls  the  Butte  Miner, 
which  has  one  of  the  largest  and  best  equipped  offices  in 
the  entire  West.  In  California,  he  has,  in  connection 
with  his  brother,  J.  Ross  Clark,  a  large  sugar-planta- 
tion with  one  of  the  largest  sugar  manufactories  in  the 
West,  this  enterprise  being  conducted  under  the  title 
of  the  Los  Alamitos  Sugar  Company.  At  Elizabethport, 
New  Jersey,  he  is  the  principal  owner  of  the  Waclark 
Wire  Works,  one  of  the  most  extensive  industrial  enter- 
prises of  the  kind  in  the  United  States,  and  at  Mt. 
Vernon,  near  New  York,  he  owns  and  operates  what  is 
probably  the  largest  and  most  artistic  manufactory  of 
bronze  in  the  country,  the  same  being  conducted  under 
the  title  of  the  Henry  Bonnard  Bronze  Company.  He 
has  large  and  valuable  real-estate  investments  in  Mon- 
tana, New  York,  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  notable 
among  which  is  his  magnificent  mansion  in  New  York 
City,  one  of  the  finest  private  residences  in  the  entire 
world,  which  was  completed  by  him  in  1910.  In  this 
splendid  home  is  installed  one  of  the  largest  and  most 
admirably-selected  art  collections  in  the  world,  and  the 
entire  building,  superb  in  all  appointments,  with  its  un- 
excelled artistic  wood-carving  and  marble-work,  and 
other  artistic  decorations,  with  its  superb  collection  of 
pictures,  tapestries,  Persian  carpets  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  statues,  faience,  antique  and  priceless  stained- 
glass  windows,  and  other  objects,  indicate  the  cultivated 
tastes  of  the  owner  and  of  his  gracious  wife.  Nevertiie- 
less,  Mr.  Clark  claims  Butte,  Montana,  where  he  has 
lived  the  greater  part  of  his  life,  as  his  permanent  home. 
Another  of  the  really  great  projects  of  Senator  Clark 
was  the  construction  of  the  railroad  from  San  Pedro 
harbor  and  Los  Angeles,  California,  to  Salt  Lake  City, 
Utah,  of  which  he  is  president.  This  great  railroad  in- 
volving a  mileage,  including  branch  lines  of  over  1,000 
miles,  was  built  by  Mr.  Clark  in  connection  with  the 
L^nion  Pacific  Railroad  Company  jointly,  and  without 
the  sale  of  a  single  bond  or  of  a  single  share  of  stock, 
which  is  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  railroad  con- 
struction. Soon  after  its  construction,  it  suffered  a 
wash-out  of  about  eighty  miles  in  extent,  in  what  is 
called  the  Rainbow  Canon,  which  necessitated  an  addi- 
tional outlay  of  about  $5,000,000,  which  was  promptly 
furnished,  and  a  high  and  safe  line  was  completed  with- 
in a  few  months.  This  was  a  calamity  probably  without 
parallel  in  the  world's  record  of  railway  construction. 
This  railway  is  now  doing  a  large  and  profitable  busi- 
ness. Mr.  Clark  also  owns  a  great  amount  of  stock, 
bonds  and  other  securities  of  sonie,of  the  leading  East- 
ern and  Trans-Continental  Railroad  lines,  and  has  con- 
cerned himself  with  all  manner  of  industrial  and  finan- 
cial enterprises,  which  have  felt  the  impetus  of  his  con- 
structive and  executive  power,  as  well  as  of  his  immense 
capitalistic  resources. 

Long  maintaining  his  home  in  the  city  of  Butte, 
where  he  began  mining  operations  in  1872,  and  where 
he  established  his  residence  in  1878,  Senator  Clark  has 
ever  shown  the  deepest  sympathy  in  all  that  has  touched 
the  general  well-being  of  the  Montana  metropolis,  as 
well  as  the  State  at  large.  Public-spirited  in  the  highest 
degree,  he  has  given  generously  of  his  time,  ability  and 
means,  to  the  furtherance  of  enterprises  and  measures 
which  have  signally  concerned  the  development  and  up- 
building of  the  "Treasure  State."  The  first  water-works 
system,  and  the  first  electric  lighting  plant,  in  Butte, 
were  established  by  him,  and  he  is  now  the  sole  owner 
of  the  electric  street-railway  lines  in  the  city,  as  well  as 
those  extending  to  the  neighboring  suburbs.  Many 
other  local  and  state  industrial  enterprises  have  received 
his  earnest  and  liberal  cooperation,  and  it  may  be  said, 
without  fear  of  legitimate  contradiction,  that  no  one 
citizen  of  Montana  has  done  as  much  as  he  in  the  for- 


In  the  counties  of  Missoula  and  Ravalli,  in  Western 
Montana,  he  purchased,  years  ago,  large  tracts  of  tim- 
ber-land on  both  sides  of  the  big  Blackfoot  river,  for 
forty  miles,  as  well  as  Nine  Mile  creek,  at  Milltown,  six 
miles  from  Missoula,  he  built  a  dam  in  the  Missoula 
river,  and  installed  a  large  water-power  plant,  and  con- 
structed a  saw-mill  of  very  large  capacity,  as  well  as  a 
linishing-plant.  At  Missoula,  he  built  a  flour-mill  and 
a  street  railway  eighteen  miles  in  extent,  and  also  owns 
the  water-system  and  electric-light  system  at  that  place. 
He  also  extended  an  electric  pole-line  to  Hamilton,  sixty 
miles  from  Missoula,  at  which  point  he  also  owns  the 
-electric-light  and  water  systems,  and  now  furnishes  elec- 
tric light  and  power  to  all  the  intervening  towns  in  the 
Bitter  Root  Valley. 

One  of  the  noble  contributions  made  to  Butte  by 
Senator  Clark  is  the  Paul  Clark  Home,  named  in  honor 
of  his  son,  who  died  at  sixteen  years  of  age  while  pre- 
paring to  enter  Yale  University.  This  institution  was 
built  by  him,  and  endowed  in  perpetuity,  and  furnishes 
a  home  for  orphan  and  half-orphan  children,  where 
they  enjoy  all  the  comforts  and  advantages  of  home 
life.  It  has  a  capacity  for  one  hundred  children.  It  is 
incorporated  with  a  Board  consisting  of  five  Directors, 
three  of  whom  are  women,  and  Mrs.  J.  M.  White,  a  lady 
who  has  been  noted  for  giving  her  attention  for  many 
years  to  charitable  work,  is  President  of  the  Home. 
Two  other  ladies,  Mrs.  Burton  and  Mrs.  Moore,  very 
magnanimously  devote  a  large  portion  of  their  time  to 
the  interest  and  welfare  of  the  institution.  The  male 
members  of  the  Board  are  business  men  who  look  after 
the  financial  and  business  interests  of  the  Home,  and 
altogether  it  constitutes  a  very  happy  family,  that  is 
productive  of  much  good  in  the  great  mining  metropolis. 

As  a  perpetual  memorial  in  honor  of  his  mother,  who 
was  noted  for  her  acts  of  charity  during  her  life,  Mr. 
Clark  conceived  the  project  of  erecting  a  home  for  girls 
who  are  obliged  to  work  for  a  living,  in  order  that  they 
might  be  provided  with  all  the  suljstantial  comforts  and 
advantages  of  a  quiet  home  at  actual  cost  for  food  and 
attendance,  without  considering  the  outlays  of  the  in- 
vestments for  the  building  and  its  equipment,  or  for  the 
management  thereof.  A  large  structure  in  the  style  of 
the  French  Renaissance  was  planned  about  two  years  ago, 
and  was  completed  and  furnished  in  February  last  at  a 
cost  of  about  $400,000.  The  building  is  prominently 
located  on  Loma  Drive,  in  Los  Angeles,  California,  one 
of  the  highest  points  in  the  city.  It  is  four  stories  high, 
with  a  basement,  and  was  built  absolutely  fire-proof.  The 
building  is  remarkable  for  its  completeness  in  every  par- 
ticular. It  contains  about  two  hundred  rooms,  and  ample 
dimensions,  with  additional  room  for  closets  and  ward- 
robes, and  ample  baths  were  established  on  every  floor. 
It  is  burnished  throughout  with  elegant  and  durable 
equipment.  There  is  a  large  dining  room,  with  a  seating- 
capacity  for  two  hundred,  on  the  first  floor.  Also,  on 
this  floor,  are  reception-rooms,  two  large  parlors,  a  com- 
modious library,  and  an  auditorium,  with  a  seating- 
capacity  for  four  hundred  people.  In  the  basement,  there 
is  a  large  bowling-alley  and  gymnasium.  The  surround- 
ing grounds  are  beautifully  planted,  and  equipped  with 
basket-ball  and  tennis  courts.  The  total  cost  of  living 
for  each  girl  ranges  from  $4  to  $6.50  per  week,  'every- 
thing included,  and  the  establishment  is  admirably  man- 
aged by  a  special  executive  committee  of  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association.  In  February,  1913,  at 
which  time  there  was  a  large  assembly  of  the  people  of 
Los  Angeles,  Mr.  Clark  delivered  an  address,  and  also 
a  deed  conveying  the  entire  property  to  the  Young 
Women's  Association,  with  the  condition  expressed  that 
it  should  be  maintained  in  perpetuity  by  said  Association, 
to  carry  out  the  purposes  of  the  donor,  and  should  bear 
the  name  of  "The  Mary  Andrews  Clark  Home."  Within 
a  few  days  thereafter,  the  entire  capacity  of  the  building 


accommodated. 

To  Senator  Clark,  Butte  owes  the  creation  of  the 
beautiful  neighbouring  park  and  pleasure-ground  known 
as  Columbia  Gardens,  which  were  established  by  him 
about  twelve  years  ago,  and  which  he  has  continually 
enlarged  and  improved,  at  great  expense.  With  zealous 
personal  care,  he  transformed  this  idyllic  mountain 
fastness  into  a  magnificent  pleasure  resort  for  all  classes 
and  conditions  of  citizens,  and  particularly  for  children, 
and  the  same  constitutes  an  enduring  monument  to  his 
generosity  and  civic  pride.  It  is  but  due  to  him  that  a 
brief  description  of  this  resort  be  entered  in  this  con- 
nection, and  the  following  data  are  taken  from  an  article 
previously  published,  with  slight  elimination  and  para- 
phrase:— 

Since  1901,  a  pleasure  resort  of  the  very  first  class 
has  been  accessible  to  the  people  of  Butte.  Across  the 
valley,  and  three  miles  East  of  the  city,  one  of  the  num- 
erous caiions  common  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  has  been 
utilized  for  this  purpose.  It  has  been  preserved  almost 
as  nature  made  it,  with  additions  only  of  such  character 
as  would  enhance  its  inviting  rusticity.  The  groves  of 
the  little,  picturesque  valley  have  been  extended  by  the 
additional  planting  of  several  thousand  trees  each  year. 
As  the  water  from  the  springs  and  melting  snows  high 
up  the  mountain  side  sfert  upon  their  downward  course 
they  join  with  others  coming  from  diff^erent  directions, 
and  long  before  the  bed  of  the  canon  is  reached,  a  de- 
lightful stream  babbles  along  over  a  pebbly  bottom,  and 
gurgles  over  an  occasional  rock  into  inviting  pools. 
Luxuriant  foliage  fringes  the  banks  of  these  tributary 
streams  long  ere  their  confluence  in  the  more  level  sweep 
below,  and  as  they  emerge  into  one,  a  perfect  Eden  of 
green  is  massed  about  them.  Willows  and  alders,  with 
here  and  there  a  lonely  pine,  have  formed  inviting  bowers 
and  cosy  nooks.  Here,  Nature  has  been  aided  in  pro- 
viding for  the  comfort  and  entertainment  of  man  by  the 
supplementing  of  rustic  seats,  the  creation  of  shaded 
parks,  the  construction  of  little  bridges,  and  endless  paths 
and  other  embellishments.  A  great  pavilion  occupies 
a  commanding  position  in  the  centre  of  the  grounds. 
Within  its  walls  are  cafes,  banquet-rooms,  smoking- 
rooms,  refreshment-booths  of  all  kinds,  and  a  dance  floor 
of  gigantic  proportions,  upon  which  2,000  people  may 
dance  at  a  time,  with  balconies  for  guests  and  orchestra. 
Surrounding  the  whole  structure  are  broad  promenade 
verandas,  and  an  open  band-stand.  The  landscape-gar- 
dener has  given  help  in  completing  the  scene,  by  creating 
attractive  flower-beds  and  parterres,  the  erection  of 
charming  pagodas,  and  the  creation  of  a  delightful  lake, 
on  which  glide  many  boats  at  the  will  of  the  pleasure- 
seekers.  There  is  also  established  large  green-houses, 
where  thousands  of  flowers,  comprising  all  the  various 
varieties,  are  grown,  throughout  the  winter  season.  Also, 
a  fish  hatchery  has  been  provided  for  the  inspection  and 
enjoyment  of  pleasure-seekers.  The  resort  contains  also 
a  collection  of  wild  animals,  consisting  generally  of  those 
found  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  regions,  as  well  as  a  large 
collection  of  birds  of  beautiful  plumage,  all  of  which  is 
particularly  interesting  to  children.  This  resort  is  pecul- 
iarly charming  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  the  citizens  of 
Butte  are  there  brought  into  close  communion  with 
Nature,  not  only  the  thousands  of  people  belonging  to 
the  laboring-classes,  but  also  those  of  higher  estate,  have 
been  quick  to  accept  and  enjoy  the  privileges  of  this 
bountifully-endowed  mountain  retreat,  so  gratuitously 
thrown  open  to  them,  at  no  further  cost  than  car-fare. 
The  gardens  are  under  the  control  of  the  Butte  Electric 
Railway  Company,  but  Senator  Clark  is  entitled  to  the 
honor  of  having  provided  so  necessary  a  public  institu- 
tion. As  President  and  owner  of  the  Railway  Company, 
he  was  the  instigator  of  the  plan  for  providing  the  Colum- 
bia Gardens,  which  are  accounted  to  be  the  greatest  pub- 
lic  play-grounds   in   the   country,   and   he  has  been   the 


858 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


generous  and  enthusiastic  patron  of  the  enterprise  from 
its  inception.  The  Gardens  are  provided  with  electric 
light,  fire,  sewerage,  and  water-systems.  The  affection 
which  Mr.  Clark  has  ever  shown  for  children  has  been 
signally  exemplified  in  connection  with  these  Gardens, 
and  on  May  8th  of  each  year,  and  every  Thursday  fol- 
lowing, and  during  the  entire  summer  school-vacation, 
he  provides  at  his  individual  expense  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  the  children  of  Butte  and  its  vicinity  at  this 
beautiful  resort.  Free  transportation  is  given  on  special 
trains  over  his  own  electric  lines,  as  well  as  from  the  sur- 
rounding country  towns,  and  at  the  gardens,  the  little 
ones  find  endless  sources  of  entertainment. 

The  grounds  are  furnished  with  all  sorts  of  equipment, 
such  as  swings,  slides,  roller-coasters,  teeters,  giant 
strides,  and  so  forth.  On  these  days,  there  are  present 
6,000  to  10,000  children,  who  enjoy  his  hospitality.  To 
see  these  children  at  the  Gardens,  well  dressed  and  well- 
behaved,  most  of  them  the  children  of  miners,  is  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  sights  to  be  seen  in  the  world. 

In  no  one  direction  does  Mr.  Clark  find  greater  pleas- 
ure or  satisfaction  than  in  aiding  or  contributing  to  the 
happiness  of  children,  who  ever  appeal  to  the  kindly  in- 
stinct of  his  heart. 

All  that  has  been  accomplished  by  Mr.  Clark  in  the 
handling  of  business  afifairs  of  the  broadest  scope  and 
importance,  could  not  be  told  in  a  volume,  and  it  may 
well  be  said  that  he  stands  as  an  admirable  type  of  the 
world's  productive  workers.  But  not  thus  has  been  taken 
the  full  measure  of  the  man,  for  in  the  midst  of  the 
manifold  exactnients  of  his  great  industrial  and  financial 
interests,  he  has  not  denied  to  the  State  and  Nation 
services  of  high  order,— services  which  Time  is  proving 
to  have  been  of  greater  value  than  were  shown  by  con- 
temporary estimates.  To  one  who  has  achieved  so 
much  in  the  world  of  practical  affairs,  there  must  have 
come  a  natural  broadening  in  mental  powers,  intellectual 
capacity,  and  general  appreciation  of  the  duties  of  citi- 
zenship. Senator  Clark  has  manifested  a  high  stamp 
of  civic  stewardship,  is  admirably  fortified  in  his  opinions 
touching  matters  of  governmental  and  economic  polity, 
and  his  loyalty  as  a  citizen  and  as  a  stalwart  supporter 
of  the  cause  of  the  Democratic  Party  cannot  be  impugned, 
the  while  popular  appreciation  of  his  public  service  must 
continue,  cumulative  with  the  passing  of  years. 

In  1876,  Governor  Potts  appointed  Mr.  Clark  official 
orator  to  represent  the  Territory  of  Montana  at  the  Cen- 
tennial Exposition,  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  brilliant 
address  which  he  there  delivered  did  much  to  attract  at- 
tention to  the  magnificent  natural  resources  of  the  terri- 
tory for  which  he  appeared  as  sponsor.  In  1877,  Mr. 
Clark  was  elected  Grand  Master  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
Ancient  Free  &  Accepted  Masons  of  Montana,  and  in  the 
same  year  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  respond  to  the  call 
of  Governor  Potts  for  volunteers  to  repel  the  invasion 
of  the  Nez  Perce  Indians.  He  received  commission  as 
major  of  the  Butte  Battalion  and  led  this  gallanf  organi- 
zation to  the  front  against  Chief  Joseph,  one  of  the 
greatest  Indian  military  leaders  the  country  has  known. 
In  1884,  Mr.  Clark  represented  Silver  Bow  county  as 
delegate  to  the  first  State  Constitutional  Convention  of 
Montana,  and  he  had  the  distinction  of  being  made  presi- 
dent of  the  convention,  in  which  he  made  an  admirable 
record  as  a  presiding  officer  and  parliamentarian  as  well 
as  a  citizen  of  the  most  aggressive  loyalty  and  public 
spirit.  In  1884,  he  was  appointed  by  President  Arthur 
to  represent  Montana  as  a  commissioner  to  the  World's 
Industrial  &  Cotton  Exposition,  in  the  city  of  New 
Orleans,  and  there  he  again  rendered  valuable  service  to 
the  state  of  his  adoption. 


In  politics  Senator  Clark  is  primarily  and  emphatically 
a  Democrat,  and  his  leadership  in  the  party  ranks  in  the 
West  has  been  creditable  to  the  state  which  he  has  repre- 
sented as  well  as  to  himself  as  a  broad-minded  and 
patriotic  citizen.  The  compass  of  this  article  renders 
possible  only  the  briefest  review  of  his  political  career, 
the  record  of  the  greater  part  of  which  has  become  a 
very  part  of  national  history.  In  1888,  he  was  nominated 
by  his  party  as  delegate  from  Montana  Territory  to  Con- 
gress, and  after  a  most  brilliant  and  spirited  canvass  he 
was  defeated,  owing  to  treachery  within  the  party  ranks. 
At  the  time  of  the  second  constitutional  convention,  in 
1889,  when  Montana  was  finally  admitted  to  the  Union, 
Mr.  Clark  was  elected  president  of  the  convention,  in 
which  position  he  rendered  most  effective  service  of 
entirely  non-partisan  order. 

To  Mr.  Clark's  senatorial  aspirations  national  interest 
attaches.  Upon  the  first  legislative  assembly  of  the  new 
state,  convened  in  Helena  in  January,  1890,  devolved  the 
duty  of  electing  two  United  States  senators  to  represent 
the  new  commonwealth.  Political  misunderstanding  re- 
sulted in  the  election  of  two  sets  of  senators,  following 
the  organization  of  two  distinctive  houses  or  representa- 
tives. The  Democrats  elected  William  A.  Clark  and 
Martin  Maginnis,  and  the  Republicans  chose  Wilbur  F. 
Sanders  and  Thomas  C.  Power.  Mr.  Clark  received  the 
unanimous  vote  of  his  party  both  in  caucus  and  in  the 
joint  session  of  the  two  houses  of  the  legislature.  All 
four  presented  their  claims  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
and,  as  the  Republicans  were  in  a  majority,  in  that  body, 
the  issue  did  not  remain  long  in  doubt,  Messrs.  Sanders 
and  Power  having  been  recognized  as  the  duly  elected 
representatives  of  Montana  in  the  Federal  Senate.  It  is 
a  matter  of  record  that  on  this  occasion  Mr.  Clark  re- 
ceived from  his  party  in  the  state  the  highest  honor  in 
its  gift,  and  he  is  as  proud  of  this  distinction  to  this  day 
as  he  would  have  been  to  enjoy  the  full  honors  of  what 
he  regards  as  just  and  legal  election. 

In  1893  occurred  Mr.  Clark's  second  contest  for  the 
office  of  United  States  Senator.  The  legislature  con- 
vened at  Helena  to  elect  a  successor  to  Colonel  Sanders. 
Three  Populist  members  held  the  balance  of  power. 
Again  the  caucus  nomination  was  given  to  Mr.  Clark, 
but  a  contingent  of  the  Democratic  members  refused 
either  to  participate  in  the  caucus  or  to  abide  by  its  action. 
During  the  entire  legislative  session  of  sixty  days,  the 
senatorial  contest  continued,  and  at  the  last  joint  session 
the  gavel  fell  with  no  election.  During  several  ballots 
Mr.  Clark  came  within  two  votes  of  an  election,  having 
received  the  support  of  one  Populist  and  several  Repub- 
licans in  addition  to  the  twenty-six  Democrats  whose 
fealty  had  continued  without  interruption.  Mr.  Clark 
headed  the  Montana  delegation  to  the  Democratic 
national  convention  of  1892,  in  Chicago,  and  during  the 
ensuing  national  administration  he  wielded  due  power 
in  connection  with  federal  affairs  in  Montana. 

During  the  legislative  session  in  1898,  Mr.  Clark  was 
again  a  candidate  for  the  United  States  Senate,  and  was 
again  elected.  On  his  application  for  permission  to  take 
his  seat,  partisan  politics  again  intervened,  and  at  the 
rcquesf  of  the  Republican  majority  in  the  Senate,  the 
question  of  his  seating  was  held  in  abeyance.  In  the 
meanwhile  he  resigned  his  office,  to  which  he  had  been 
elected,  and  he  was  thereupon  appointed,  by  Lieutenant 
Governor  Spriggs  to  fill  the  vacancy,  but  he  never  pre- 
sented himself  to  take  the  oath  of  office.  This  term,  how- 
ever, could  continue  only  until  the  next  meeting  of  the 
legislature,  1901,  and  at  this  assembly  Mr.  Clark  was  for 
a  third  time  elected  to  the  position  he  so  honorably 
sought  and  to  which  he  was  most  eminently  entitled.    Of 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


859 


his  service  in  the  United  States  Senate  it  is  not  necessary 
to.  give  details  in  this  article,  for  his  record  has  become 
a  very  part  of  the  history  of  that  body  and  one  which 
redounds  to  his  credit  and  honor. 

Fidelity  has  been  one  of  the  dominating  traits  in  the 
character  of  Senator  Clark,  and  with  the  passing  of  time 
has  come  a  fuller  appreciation  of  the  sacrifices  he  has 
made  and  the  exalted  service  he  has  given  in  behalf  of 
the  state  to  the  development  of  which  he  has  contributed 
in  prodigious  measure.  He  has  merited  every  confidence 
reposed  in  him,  and  has  been  true  to  every  trust,  whether 
great  or  small.  The  city  of  Helena  is  indebted  to  him 
for  the  location  of  the  state  capital  within  its  borders.  In 
1894,  the  permanent  seat  of  government  was  to  be  estab- 
lished, after  a  contest  which  had  left  Helena  and  Ana- 
conda as  the  sole  competitors.  Temporarily  Helena  was 
the  capital  city,  but  the  choice  of  the  powerful  Anaconda 
Company  was  Anaconda,  whose  star  seemed  much  in 
the  ascendancy.  The  Helena  forces  were  without  leader- 
ship or  proper  organization.  In  this  connection,  it  should 
be  noted  that  the  residence  of  Senator  Clark  was  in  sight 
of  the  Anaconda  mines  and  that  there  were  many  large 
inducements  for  him  to  throw  his  influence  in  favor  of 
.'\naconda.  But  conditions  appealed  to  his  sense  of 
justice,  and  he  accordingly  became  the  aggressive  cham- 
pion of  the  cause  of  Helena.  Through  the  columns  of 
the  Butte  Miner  he  made  his  position  known,  without 
reference  to  political  or  personal  ambition,  and  from  that 
time  forward  he  was  the  recognized  leader  of  the  Helena 
forces.  He  eloquently  urged  the  claims  of  Helena  on  the 
stump  and  contributed  liberally  to  the  campaign  fund. 
Concerning  his  efforts  in  this  connection,  the  following 
spirited  account  has  been  given  and  is  well  worthy  of 
perpetuation  in  this  review  : 

"Never,  in  the  history  of  this  or  any  other  state,  was 
a  battle  more  intense  and  exciting;  never  did  the  people 
more  keenly  feel  that  their  rights  and  liberaties  were 
at  stake ;  and  never  did  a  citizen  receive  a  greater  or 
more  spontaneous  ovation  than  that  which  Mr.  Clark 
enjoyed  when,  after  having  unquestionably  snatched 
victory  from  defeat,  the  people  of  the  state  gathered  in 
thousands  at  Helena  to  do  him  honor.  The  citizens  bore 
him  on  their  shoulders  from  his  train,  placed  him  in  a 
carriage,  and  then,  detaching  the  horses,  took  their 
places  at  the  pole  and  triumphantly  hauled  the  vehicle 
to  the  city  as  a  victor's  chariot.  It  was  a  battle  never  to 
be  forgotten,  and  the  unprecedented  expressions  of 
gratitude  which  were  showered  upon  Mr.  Clark  formed 
a  climax  such  as  rarely  rewards  the  efforts  of  man.  It 
was  a  victory  which  easily  gave  Mr.  Clark  rank  as  the 
leading  citizen  of  the  state  and  as  one  of  the  most  com- 
manding figures  of  the  West.'' 

Senator  Clark  is  still  making  history,  and  it  is  uni- 
formly conceded  that  he  has  played  no  unimportant 
part  in  national  affairs.  That  he  is  entitled  to  a  place  in 
the  first  rank  of  the  brave,  determined  and  energetic  men 
of  the  great  West  will  be  readily  admitted,  and  his  career 
offers  both  lesson  and  inspiration.  As  a  good  citizen, 
patriotic,  broad-minded,  Senator  Clark  has  thousands  of 
warm  personal  friends,  regardless  of  political  lines  or 
social  gradations.  With  many  of  them  he  has  mingled 
as  a  pioneer,  and  had  experience  in  connection  with  con- 
ditions and  influences  of  the  formative  period  in  the 
history  of  a  great  commonwealth.  To  many  he  has  given 
a  helping  hand  and  a  cheering  word  of  encouragement. 
His  heart  has  been  attuned  to  sympathy  and  tolerance, 
and  those  who  know  him  best  are  they  who  will  most 
earnestly  attest  to  this.  His  has  been  a  wonderful  suc- 
cess in  temporal  affairs,  but  the  generous,  kindly  heart 


of  the  man  has  shown  itself  above  all  and  over  all  his 
activities,  with  the  result  that  he  merits  the  high  regard 
in  which  he  is  held  in  the  state  of  which  he  has  been 
essentially  one  of  the  founders  and  builders.  He  still 
passes  considerable  time  each  year  in  Montana,  and  he 
is  proud  of  the  state  and  of  her  sterling  citizens,  glad 
of  the  part  which  he  has  been  able  to  take  in  her  develop- 
ment and  upbuilding,  and  appreciative  of  the  esteem 
which  he  has  won  through  the  long  years  of  association 
with  this  favored  commonwealth. 

Reverting  briefly  to  the  political  career  of  Senator  Clark, 
it  may  be  said  that  at  the  opening  of  the  state  campaign 
in  igoo  it  was  at  once  evident  that  his  candidacy  for  the 
United  States  Senate  was  to  be  the  principal  issue.  Cer- 
tain well-known  and  strong  corporate  interests  threw 
large  sums  of  money  into  the  state,  ostensibly  for  the 
defeat  of  the  Democratic  state  ticket,  but  in  reality  to 
defeat  his  senatorial  aspiration.  Newspapers  were  es- 
tablished, and  others  founded,  enlarged  and  improved. 
In  the  equipping  of  these  extensive  plants,  and  for  their 
editorial  supervision,  immense  sums  were  expended,  the 
while  there  was  established  in  Butte  an  extensive  art 
plant,  apparently  for  the  sole  purpose  of  supplying  poli- 
tical caricature  directed  against  him.  His  personality 
was  the  target  for  every  possible  projectile  to  be  thrown 
by  his  powerful  antagonists,  but  they  found  in  him  a 
foeman  more  than  worthy  of  their  steel,  and  the  result 
of  the  election  was  a  sweeping  Democratic  victory — a 
most  flattering  vindication  of  Mr.  Clark  in  connection 
with  the  action  of  the  United  States  Senate  following 
his  election  to  that  body  in  1898.  The  election  of  Mr. 
Clark  was  practically  settled  on  the  night  of  November 
6,  1900,  when  the  votes  were  counted  throughout  the 
state.  On  the  7th  of  January,  1901,  the  Montana  legis- 
lature assembled.  Until  the  15th,  at  which  time  the 
formal  ballot  was  taken,  each  house  voting  separately, 
the  senatorial  question  was  the  absorbing  topic.  On 
January  15th,  at  noon,  the  first  ballot  was  taken.  The 
result  showed  a  clear  majority  of  two  for  Senator  Clark, 
after  the  distribution  of  a  number  of  complimentary  bal- 
lots to  other  persons.  The  legislature  then  adjourned. 
On  the  next  ballot,  at  noon  of  the  following  day.  Senator 
Clark  received  the  solid  vote  of  his  party,  fifty-seven  to 
thirty-six,  in  both  houses,  for  the  long  term,  this  being 
seven  more  than  necessary  for  his  election  as  successor 
of  the  late  Senator  Thomas  H.  Carter.  This  was  as  com- 
plete a  vindication  as  was  ever  accorded  anywhere  to  any 
man,  and  it  remains  a  source  of  profound  gratification  to 
Senator  Clark.  He  entered  upon  his  official  duties  :<s 
senator  on  the  4th  of  March,  igor,  and  by  his  demo'.atic 
and  affable  manner,  his  familiarity  with  state  and  national 
issues,  and  his  ability  as  a  dialectician  and  orator,  he 
added  materially  to  his  prestige  as  one  of  the  national 
leaders  of  the  Democratic  Party.  He  retired  from  the 
senate  on  the  4th  March,  1907,  and  though  he  has  now 
passed  the  psalmist's  span  of  three  score  years  and  ten, 
the  years  rest  lightly  upon  him,  and  he  has  the  vitality 
and  alertness  of  a  man  many  years  his  junior.  He  main- 
tains a  close  personal  supervision  of  his  vast  interests, 
and  shows  no  diminution  of  his  marvellous  business 
powers,  his  mental  and  physical  strength,  being  the  re- 
sult of  right  living  and  of  constant  touch  with  the 
activities  of  life. 

From  many  other  pleasing  and  consistent  estimates 
the  one  here  presented  is  considered  worthy  or  reproduc- 
tion : — 

"Mr.  Clark,  though  an  unusually  active  man  in  the 
supervising  of  his  great  and  diversified  interests,  has 
found  time  for  the  gratification  of  various  other  dominat- 


860 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


ing  instincts — artistic,  scholastic,  social  and  political 
activities  having  their  quota  of  time  and  thought.  He  is 
a  gentleman  almost  delicate  in  appearance,  refined  and 
cultured,  capable  of  versatile  conversation  on  subjects 
of  wide  range.  Whether  as  a  humble  wage-earner,  as  a 
man  of  growing  means  and  larger  ideas,  or  as  a  giant 
in  the  mining  world,  he  has  ever  been  the  same  frank, 
courteous  gentleman,  easy  of  approach,  considerate  of 
the  feelings  of  others,  and  always  ready  to  lend  his  gen- 
erous aid  and  kindly  counsel  in  connection  with  move- 
ments which  promised  good  for  the  state  or  the  people 
thereof." 

In  March,  1869,  was  solemnized  the  marriage  of  Sena- 
tor  Clark  to  Miss  Kate  L.  Stauffer,  a  most  gracious   and 
accomplished  young  woman,  whose  home,  at  the  time, 
was  in  Conncllsville,  Pennsylvania.     Mr.  Clark  and  this 
young  lady  were  school  children  together  in  their  child- 
hood years.    On  their  wedding-day,  the  young  couple  set 
forth  for  their  home  in  the  territory  of  Montana,  going 
by   rail  to  the  western  terminus   of  the   Union   Pacific 
Railroad  Company,  which  was  then  near  Ogden,  Utah. 
From  this  point,  they  went  by  stage-coach,  which  required 
five  days'  constant  travel  day  and  night.   They  arrived  at 
Helena,  which  was  to  be  their  home  for  a  time,  and  on 
the  25th  day  of  January  of  the  following  year,  their  first 
child  was  born — Mary  Joaquina  Clark.     After  their  re- 
moval to  Deer  Lodge,  four  other  children  were  born  to 
them,  and  their  youngest  child,  Francis  Paul,  was  born 
in  the  year  1880,  in  the  city  of  Paris,  France,  where  the 
family    resided   during   three   years,   in    order   that   the 
children  might  receive  educational  training  in  the  French 
language,    as    they    did   later   in    Germany,    where   they 
passed  two  years  in  the  city  of  Dresden,  Saxony.    During 
these   five  years.   Senator   Clark  passed   his   winters   in 
Europe,  and  he  and  his  family  travelled  extensively  there, 
besides  visiting  portions  of  Asia  and  Africa.     Mary,  the 
eldest  of  the  children,  is  now  the  wife  of  Charles  Potter 
Kling,  a  representative  lawyer  of  New  York  City;  the 
eldest  son,  Charles  Walker,  was  graduated  in  Yale  Uni- 
versity, where  he  also  took  a  course  in  mineralogy,  and 
metallurgy,  in  the  year  1893,  and  he  now  resides  in  San 
Mateo,  _  California,    but    is    closely   associated   with    his 
father  in  extensive  mining  interests.     He  married  Miss 
Katherine  Roberts,  of  Helena,  Montana,  who  died  a  few 
years  afterwards,  and,  in  the  year  following  her  death, 
he  was  married  to  Miss  Celia  Tobin,  of  San  Francisco. 
Katherine  L.  is  the  wife  of  Dr.  Lewis  R.  Morris,  who  is 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  New  York. 
Jessie,  twin-sister  of  Katherine  L.,  died  at  Deer  Lodge 
in  April,  1888,  at  the  age  of  three  years.     William  A., 
Junior,  graduated  in  the  Law  Department  of  the  Uni- 
versity   of   Virginia,    and   practiced   his    profession    for 
several  years  in  Montana,  but  is  now  engaged  in  ex- 
tensive mining  operations  in  association  with  his  father. 
He  is  now  a  resident  of  Los  Angeles,  California.     He 
married   Miss   Mabel  Foster,  of  Butte,   who   died   soon 
after  the  birth  of  their  first  child,   William  A.   Clark, 
Third,  and  several  years  afterwards  he  was  married  to 
Mrs.  Alice  Medin,  of  Sacramento,  California.     Francis 
Paul,  youngest  of  the  children,  died  at  the  age  of  sixteen 
years.     Reference  has  herein  above  been  made  to  him, 
and  the  memorial  constructed  to  perpetuate  his  memory. 
The    devoted    wife    and    mother,    Mrs.    Katherine    L. 
(Staufifer)    Clark,  was  summoned  to  the  life  eternal  in 
•  New  York  City,  on  the  19th  day  of  October,  1893,  having 
only  a  few  days  previously  been  infected  with  the  deadly 
gcrms_  of  typhoid  fever,  at  the  International  Exhibition 
at  Chicago.     Her  memory  is  revered  by  all  who  came 
within  the  sphere  of  her  gracious  and  gentle  influence. 


On  the  21  st  day  of  May,  1901,  Senator  Clark  contracted 
a  second  marriage,  having  then  been  united  to  Miss  Anna 
E.  Lachapelle,  whose  parents,  of  Canadian  origin,  lived 
for  many  years  at  Butte,  Montana.  Her  father,  an  able 
physician,  with  a  very  promising  future,  while  yet  a 
young  man,  died  of  heart-disease,  and  Senator  Clark,  a 
warm  friend  of  the  family,  recognizing  the  remarkable 
talent  of  the  daughter  for  music,  sent  her  to  Paris  to  be 
educated.  She  was  a  pupil  of  the  great  harpist  Hassel- 
mans,  at  the  Conservatoire  of  Music,  at  Paris,  for  several 
years,  and  acquired  wonderful  proficiency  on  the  harp. 
To  them  has  been  born  two  children,  Wilhelmina 
Andree,  in  1902,  and  Huguette  Marcelle,  in  1906.  Both 
of  these  children  have  inherited  the  musical  ability  of  the 
mother,  and  having  lived  abroad  until  recently,  have 
acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  French  and  other  languages, 
and  have  recently  learnt  the  English  language. 

The  above  is  a  brief  record  of  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant events  and  achievements  in  the  active  life  of  a 
notable   Montana  pioneer. 

Hon.  Lee  Mantle.  The  name  of  Hon.  Lee  Mantle, 
of  Butte,  Montana,  former  United  States  senator  from 
this  state,  has  been  inseparably  identified  with  the  his- 
tory of  Montana  from  early  territorial  times,  and 
through  the  days  to  come  there  will  be  accorded  him 
a  tribute  of  honor  as  a  man  of  dominant  force  and 
integrity,  and  as  one  who  has  contributed  in  no  small 
measure  to  the  progress  and  prosperity  of  the  state, 
more  especially  with  that  rock-ribbed  part  which  is 
rich  beyond  compare  with  its  wealth  of  hidden  min- 
erals. 

Lee  Mantle  was  born  in  the  great  manufacturing 
eity  of  Birmingham,  England,  December  13,  1853,  and 
is  a  son  of  Joseph  Mantle,  who  died  shortly  before 
his  birth,  and  his  wife,  Mary  Susan  (Patrick)  Man- 
tle, who  had  six  other  children.  To  be  left  a  widow 
with  narrow  means  and  seven  young  children  to  rear 
alone  was  a  future  heavy  with  responsibility  and  only 
a  woman  of  unusual  force  of  character  and  innate 
courage  could  have  so  calmly  and  resolutely  accepted 
conditions  and  through  resourcefulness  and  expedients 
known  only  to  herself  have  guided  the  little  flock 
through  the  ten  succeding  years.  Their  futiire  became 
her  main  thought  and  it  was  in  the  hope  of  finding  a 
wider  field  of  opportunity  for  them  that  she  severed 
old  ties  and  embarked  with  them  for  America.  The 
long  voyage  was  safely  accomplished,  and  the  still 
longer  journey  from  New  York  to  Salt  Lake  City, 
Utah,  and  there  she  remained  for  some  years,  finding 
not  only  work  for  her  children,  but  also  employment 
for  herself.  But  in  compensation  for  the  hardships 
she  then  endured,  the  time  came  later  when  life  was 
not  only  made  easy  for  her,  but  when  every  comfort 
was  hers,  and  in  closing  her  record  it  is  not  out  of 
place  to  refer  feelingly  to  the  devotion  of  her  youngest 
son.  Early  in  life  he  willingly  assumed  every  responsi- 
bility in  her  behalf  and  as  long  as  she  lived  his  first 
thought  and  greatest  care  was  for  her  happiness,  and 
in  his  later  achievements  it  was  to  her  he  carried  his 
laurels.  In  the  beautiful  residence  he  erected  at  Butte, 
Montana,  he  installed  this  beloved  mother  as  the  head 
of  his  home,  and  here  it  was  his  delight  to  anticipate 
her  every  wish.  Together  they  lived  in  the  closest 
afTection,  and  when,  in  old  age,  she  passed  peacefully 
away  in  February,  1901,  at  the  age  of  eighty-nine  years, 
this  devoted  son  was  at  her  bedside,  tenderly  minister- 
ing to  her  the  last,  the  busy  world  of  affairs,  upon 
which   he  had   made   his   impress,   entirely  forgotten. 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


861 


During  the  first  two  years  after  reaching  Salt  Lake 
City,  Lee  Mantle  worked  at  herding  cattle  for  his  board 
and  clothes,  and  during  the  two  following  years  he 
felt  himself  fortunate  in  not  only  receiving  food  and 
raiment  for  his  labor,  but  also  a  salary  amounting 
to  fifty  dollars  annually.  He  thus  reached  his  sixteenth 
year,  strong,  sturdy  and  ambitious,  typical  of  the  devel- 
opment which  came  later.  About  this  time  he  secured 
work  on  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  hauling  ties  for 
this  great  transportation  line  that  was  then  being  con- 
structed in  Utah  to  Promontory  Point,  where  on  May  lo, 
1869,  it  joined  the  Central  Pacific  Line,  and  where  from 
his  team  of  mules  he  saw  the  meeting  of  the  first  trains 
from  the  east  and  the  west  and  the  distinguished  guests 
who  were  brought  from  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  to 
witness  the  historic  event  of  the  driving  of  the  last  spike. 
On  the  completion  of  the  railroad,  finding  no  employ- 
ment at  home,  he  decided  to  go  to  ]Malad  City,  Idaho, 
and  although  the  place  was  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  away,  he  had  such  supreme  faith  in  his  own 
capacity  and  such  determination  to  advance  his  for- 
tunes, that  he  packed  his  possessions  and  started  with 
them  on  his  back,  walking  the  entire  distance. 

When,  footsore  and  weary,  he  reached  Malad  City, 
Idaho,  he  entered  the  employ  of  Hon.  B.  F.  White, 
who  subsequently  became  governor  of  Montana,  and 
was  engaged  as  a  teamster  hauling  salt  by  ox  team 
from  Mr.  Wliite's  salt  works  in  eastern  Idaho  to 
Boise  City,  Idaho,  and  to  Virginia  City,  Montana,  re- 
maining in  Governor  White's  employ  two  seasons. 
The  acquaintance  thus  begun  in  the  relation  of  em- 
ployer and  employe  between  the  ragged  and  almost 
barefooted  boy  and  the  governor  to  be,  ripened  later 
into  a  close  friendship  which  has  lasted  unbroken  for 
more  than   forty  years. 

A  pleasant,  winning  manner  even  then  enabled  him 
to  make  friends  readily,  and  it  was  while  spending 
the  second  winter  in  Malad,  waiting  for  the  season 
to  open,  that  he  became  acquainted  with  the  telegraph 
operator  there,  W.  N.  Shilling.  At  that  time  neither 
the  names  nor  the  personalities  of  either  Mr.  Mantle 
or  Mr.  Shilling  were  of  much  interest  to  anyone  out- 
side their  own  families,  but  the  time  came  when  Mr. 
Shilling  became  a  factor  in  the  financial  world  at 
Ogden,  Utah,  and  Mr.  Mantle's  name  carried  weight 
in  the  greatest  legislative  body  in  the  world.  Having 
nothing  else  to  do,  the  youth  concluded  it  would  be 
a  wise  measure  to  learn  the  art  of  telegraphy  from  his 
new  friend,  while  the  latter  was  glad  to  teach  him 
in  payment  for  having  the  line  along  his  route  kept 
in  order  during  the  winter  season.  Mr.  Mantle  was 
n-n  apt  pupil  and  rapidly  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the 
work,  faithfully  living  up  to  his  bargain  to  keep  the 
telegraph  line  in  good  condition.  So  well  had  his 
work  been  done  that  in  the  spring  he  was  tendered 
the  position,  and  gladly  accepted  it,  of  general  re- 
pairer on  the  main  lines  of  the  Western  Union  Tele- 
graph Company  between  Ogden  and  Green  River, 
along  the  Union  Pacific  Railway.  In  1872  he  was 
appointed  telegraph  operator  at  Pleasant  Valley,  Ida- 
ho, just  across  the  Montana  line,  on  the  old  overland 
stage  line,  where  he  remained  five  years,  becoming 
station  agent,  postmaster  and  part  owner  of  the  toll- 
road.  It  was  during  this  period  and  in  this  isolated 
spot  that  he  first  found  an  opportunity  for  reading, 
which  he  eagerly  improved,  and  it  was  here  also  that 
he  first  met  many  of  the  most  famous  of  the  early 
Montana  pioneers  on  their  stage  journeys  to  and  from 
the   east.     In   1877  he   came  to   Butte  and   opened   the 


express  office  of  Wells,  Fargo  &  Company,  and 
within  two  years  he  was  also  in  charge  of  the  first 
telegraph  office  in  the  city,  and  also  established  the 
first  fire  insurance  agency.  Subsequently,  in  partner- 
ship with  William  Owsley,  who  later  was  elected 
mayor  of  this  city,  he  embarked  in  the  livery  business, 
and  in  looking  after  the  interests  of  this  enterprise, 
built  up  his   somewhat  shattered  health. 

Mr.  Mantle  was  one  of  the  earliest  agitators  for  the 
incorporation  of  Butte  as  a  city,  and  when  this  meas- 
ure was  brought  about,  in  the  face  of  violent  opposi- 
tion, was  elected  a  member  of  its  first  board  of  alder- 
men. The  principles  and  policies  of  the  Republican 
party  had  appealed  to  him  when  manhood  dawned, 
and  after  the  organization  of  Butte  as  a  city,  he  was 
the  first  to  formulate  a  plan  and  put  it  into  execu- 
tion for  the  establishment  of  a  daily  Republican  news- 
paper here,  and  thus  came  about  the  founding  of  the 
Daily  Inter-Mountain,  which  he  managed  and  directed 
for  twenty  years,  eventually  becoming   its   sole  owner. 

Although  already  a  factor  in  local  politics,  it  was 
not  until  1882  that  he  came  prominently  before  the 
public  and  was  elected  a  member  of  the  lower  house 
of  the  territorial  legislature,  and  two  years  later  he 
was  chosen  as  a  delegate  to  the  Republican  national 
convention,  instructed  for  George  F.  Edmunds,  while 
his  colleague.  Col.  Wilbur  F.  Sanders,  was  for 
Hon.  James  G.  Blaine.  In  the  autumn  of  1884  Mr. 
Mantle  was  a  second  time  nominated  for  the  legisla- 
ture, but  was  defeated,  although  by  a  small  vote, 
from  an  honorable  cause,  having  refused  to  pledge 
himself  against  interfering  with  the  gambling  inter- 
ests. His  popularity  at  this  time  was  such  that  in 
1885,  when  Governor  Crosby  became  assistant  post- 
master-general in  the  cabinet  of  President  Arthur, 
there  was  great  pressure  brought  to  bear  to  have  Mr. 
Mantle  appointed  to  fill  the  vacancy,  but  in  the  mean- 
while a  sectional  feeling  had  been  aroused  between 
the  eastern  and  western  parts  of  the  then  territory, 
and  a  citizen  of  New  York  state  was  appointed.  In 
1886  Mr.  Mantle  once  more  returned  to  the  legisla- 
ture, where  he  worked  to  secure  a  sound  registration 
law,  together  with  numerous  other  reformatory  enact- 
ments. In  the  next  year  some  very  important  issues 
came  up  in  public  life  and  Mr.  Mantle,  through  his 
vigorous  fight  in  favor  of  just  laws,  came  still  again 
prominently  before  the  people  of  Montana.  It  is  not 
difiicult  to  recall  the  efforts  made  by  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  in  1887  to  secure  from  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  patents  to  immense  tracts 
of  valuable  mineral  land  in  Montana  which  the  com- 
pany claimed  under  its  land  grant,  and  of  the  natural 
indignation  of  the  people  at  large  over  this  attempt. 
A  mass  convention  was  held  at  Helena  and  the  Mon- 
tana Mineral  Land  Association  was  organized  to  pro- 
tect the  public  interests.  Mr.  Mantle  was  chosen 
permanent  president  of  this  body  and  it  was  largely 
through  his  determined  efforts,  aided  by  other  patriotic 
Montanians,  that  the  issuing  of  patents  was  suspended 
and  the  matter  brought  before  congress  and  remedial 
legislation  secured  which  resulted  in  saving  vast  areas 
of  valuable   mineral   lands  to  the  people. 

Once  more  returned  to  the  general  assembly  in  1888, 
Mr.  Mantle  was  accorded  the  signal  honor  of  being- 
elected  speaker,  and  during  that  last  territorial  legis- 
lature many  important  measures  came  before  the  house 
and  invaluable  laws  were  passed,  included  in  these 
being  one  for  a  registration  of  voters,  another  provid- 
ing for  the  Australian  system  of  balloting,  a  mechan- 


862 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


ic's  lien  law  and  the  mine  inspection  law.  In  the  fall 
of  1888  Mr.  Mantle  placed  Hon.  Thomas  H.  Carter 
in  nomination  at  the  territorial  convention  for  delegate 
in  congress  and  was  conspicuous  in  the  campaign 
which  resulted  in  Mr.  Carter's  election.  In  1889 
Montana  became  a  state  and  in  the  legislative  session 
following  Mr.  Mantle  became  a  candidate  for  the 
United  States  senate,  but  was  defeated  by  Hon.  Thomas 
C.  Power,  who  won  the  nomination  in  the  caucus 
by  two  votes.  Mr.  Power  had  been  the  Republican 
candidate  for  governor  and  was  defeated.  Mr.  Man- 
tle kept  in  harness,  however,  and  was  continually  at 
work  for  the  success  of  his  party  without  regard  to 
his  own  personal  advancement,  frequently  serving  as 
chairman  of  state  conventions  and  delegate  to  national 
conventions,  being  chosen  three  times  chairman  of  the 
state  Republican  central  committee,  each  time  lead- 
ing the  party  to  success.  In  1892  Butte  honored  Mr. 
Mantle  by  electing  him  mayor  of  the  city  by  a  great 
majority.  His  administration  of  municipal  affairs 
marked  a  new  era  for  Butte,  and  many  general  im- 
provements were  brought  to  a  successful  conclusion. 
The  present  fine  public  library  is  an  example. 

In  1893  came  the  well  remembered  deadlock  over 
the  election  of  a  United  States  senator.  In  the  Repub- 
lican caucus  former  Senator  Wilbur  F.  Sanders  was 
nominated  for  a  second  term  over  Mr.  Mantle  by 
just  one  vote  and  after  three  weeks  of  fruitless  ballot- 
ing his  name  was  withdrawn,  Mr.  Mantle  receiving 
*he  vote  of  his  party  until  the  session  closed  without 
an  election.  When  Senator  Sanders'  term  of  ofifice 
expired,  Mr.  Mantle  was  appointed  by  Governor  Rich- 
ards to  fill  the  vacancy ;  the  senate,  however,  refused 
to  seat  him  on  purely  technical  constitutional  grounds. 
For  two  years  the  seat  remained  vacant.  The  next 
legislature,  being  Republican,  at  once  elected  Mr.  Man- 
tle United  States  senator.  For  this  high  position  Mr. 
Mantle  was  well  equipped,  possessing  ability,  dignity, 
poise  and  strength,  and  he  took  his  place  in  the  great- 
est deliberative  body  in  the  world,  not  as  a  neophyte, 
but  as  a  seasoned  statesman  who  had  already  won 
public  honors  and  knew  how  to  wear  them.  In  the 
senate  of  the  United  States,  as  elsewhere,  his  sturdy 
integrity,  his  firm  convictions  of  right  and  justice,  his 
pure  patriotism  and  personal  independence,  won  for 
hirn  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  the  senate  and  gave 
weight  to  his  opinions.  While  called  on  to  consider 
matters  of  the  gravest  moment  to  this  country  at  large, 
he  never  forgot  the  needs  of  his  own  state  and  its 
people,  holding  himself  ever  ready  to  stand  up  in 
defense  of  their  rights. 

As  a  public  speaker  Mr.  Mantle  has  always  been 
popular  and  effective,  his  services  in  this  particular 
being  always  greatly  in  demand,  and  especially  so  dur- 
ing political   campaigns. 

Durmg  his  senatorial  term  he  served  on  numerous 
important  committees  and  was  also  appointed  a  mem- 
ber of  the  National  Industrial  Commission,  composed 
of  men  representing  various  shades  of  political  thought, 
the  object  being  to  make  a  thorough  examination  into 
the  labor  and  other  economic  questions  in  the  United 
States,  a  final  report  being  then  made  to  congress. 
The  term  of  this  committee  extended  three  years  be- 
yond his  senatorial  term,  and  when  the  latter  expired, 
on  account  of  the  pressure  of  private  concerns,  he 
felt  obliged  to  retire  from  the  commission.  When 
he  _  returned  to  Montana  he  found  his  friends  still 
active  in  his  behalf  and  in  the  legislative  session  of 
1901   he   was  again  caucus  nominee  of  the    Republican 


party.  The  legislature,  however,  was  Democratic,  and 
Mr.  Mantle  was  not  elected. 

In  the  political  campaign  of  1905  Mr.  Mantle  was 
again  a  candidate  for  the  United  States  senate.  His 
own  county  of  Silver  Bow,  which  was  always  regarded 
as  a  stronghold  of  Democracy,  elected  eleven  of  the 
twelve  candidates  for  the  legislature,  who  were 
pledged  by  the  Republican  convention  which  nomi- 
nated them  to  give  him  their  loyal  support.  Public 
sentiment  was  largely  in  his  favor  and  when  the  polls 
closed  on  election  day  there  seemed  no  doubt  but 
that  he  had  won  the  coveted  honor  throughout  the 
state.  However,  powerful  influences  were  opposed  to 
him  and  sought  his  defeat  which  was  finally  accom- 
plished by  unfair  and  dishonorable  means ;  means 
which  were  exposed  and  made  public  during  the  ex- 
citing presidential  campaign  for  delegates  to  the 
national  Republican  convention  in  1912  over  the  sig- 
nature of  a  well  known  state  senator  from  western 
Montana  who  had  led  the  fight  in  behalf  of  his  oppon- 
ent. 

In  1903,  the  ^Montana  legislature  having  failed  to 
make  an  appropriation  to  enable  the  state  to  be  repre- 
sented at  the  great  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition  to 
be  held  at  St.  Louis,  Governor  J.  K.  Toole  appointed 
a  committee  of  fifteen  prominent  citizens  to  secure 
funds  by'  private  subscription.  This  committtee  met 
and  elected  Mr.  Mantle  chairman  and  resolved  that 
in  order  to  clothe  it  with  the  proper  dignity  and  author- 
ity, the  commission  should  be  created  by  the  legis- 
lature and  the  expense  borne  by  the  state.  Mr.  Mantle 
succeeded  in  bringing  the  legislature  together  (extra 
session)  under  an  agreement  that  the  members  would 
serve  without  compensation.  A  law,  framed  by  him, 
was  immediately  passed  creating  a  commission  of  fif- 
teen members  to  be  known  as  the  "Montana  World's 
Fair  Commission"  and  the  sum  of  $50,000  appropriated. 
The  commission  elected  him  its  president  and  chair- 
man of  its  executive  committee  and  gave  him  full  con- 
trol and  direction  of  its  affairs.  Other  plans  were  set 
afloat  and  additional  funds  secured,  with  the  result 
that  the  state  was  magnificently  represented  at  this, 
the  greatest  exposition  ever  witnessed,  as  well  as  at 
the  Portland,  Oregon,  Exposition,  the  following  year. 
The  members  of  this  commission  refused  to  take  a  dol- 
lar for  their  time,  trouble  or  personal  expenses,  and 
with  their  final  report  to  the  governor  of  the  state 
turned  back  into  the  state  treasury  over  $800  of  un- 
expended  funds. 

Nothing,  perhaps,  could  more  forcibly  emphasize  the 
sterling  character  Mr.  Alantle  has  built  for  himself 
among  the  people  of  this  commonwealth  than  the  fact 
that  after  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  of  active 
participation  in  the  stress  and  strife  of  partisan  politi- 
cal warfare,  with  all  its  fierce  rivalries  and  jealousies; 
after  having  often  been  subjected  to  the  heat  and  glare 
of  hostile  criticism  which  ever  follows  the  successful 
man  in  public  life,  and  after  all  the  competitions 
and  conflicts  of  interest,  unavoidable  in  the  rush  and 
clash  of  the  business  world,  no  man  in  Montana  today 
stands  higher  in  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  his 
fellow  citizens  than  he.  Go  where  you  will  in  his 
home  state  and  you  will  hear  men  speak  of  him  only 
in  terms  of  praise  and  commendation,  both  for  his 
recognized  abilities  and  for  his  high  personal  character. 

In  common  with  a  very  large  majority  of  successful 
Americans  who  have  risen  to  prominence  in  any 
branch  of  worthy  human  effort.  Mr.  Mantle  was 
denied    the    advantage    of    an    education    in    his    earlv 


iyf  wTTs  c^fMeaJVy 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


863 


youth  and  was  necessarily  compelled  to  supply  this 
deficiency  as  best  he  could  with  the  limited  opportu- 
nities and  under  the  adverse  conditions  which  sur- 
rounded him  in  later  years.  However,  his  untiring 
industry  and  perseverance,  combined  with  natural  abil- 
ities of  a  high  order,  enabled  him  to  overcome  to  a 
most  creditable  degree  these  disadvantages,  so  much 
so,  indeed,  that  many  of  his  public  addresses  have 
commanded  approval  and  admiration,  both  for  their 
eloquence  and  their  subject  matter.  His  maiden 
speech  in  the  United  States  senate  was  a  forceful  and 
convincing  defense  of  the  people  of  the  west,  among 
whom  his  life  has  been  passed,  against  the  unjust 
aspersions  of  some  of  the  press  and  the  people  of  the 
east,  including  the  then  president  of  the  United  States. 
This  speech  was  universally  complimented  and  en- 
dorsed by  the  press  and  the  people  of  the  west.  An- 
other address  of  Mr.  Mantle's  most  highly  commended 
upon  every  hand  was  the  one  delivered  at  the  memo- 
rial services  held  in  honor  of  the  late  Senator  Thomas 
H.  Carter  at  Helena.  It  was  an  earnest,  eloquent  and 
sincere  tribute  to  the  splendid  character  and  great  life 
work  of  his  former  colleague  and  friend.  By  much 
of  the  editorial  comment  it  was  pronounced  a  classic 
and  worthy  of  preservation  in  the  historical  archives 
of    the    state. 

Aside  from  his  more  than  thirty  years  of  continu- 
ous activity  in  affairs  political  and  in  public  life, 
Mr.  Mantle  has  been  a  very  busy  man,  having  numer- 
ous interests  running  in  many  directions.  For  twenty 
years  he  managed  and  directed  the  business  and  poli- 
cies of  his  paper,  the  Daily  Inter-Mountain,  until  he 
sold  it  in  1901.  He  has  ever  been  regarded  as  a  pub- 
lic spirited  citizen  wielding  a  strong  influence  and 
taking  an  active  interest  in  all  that  pertained  to  the 
welfare  of  his  home  city  and  state,  and  ever  ready  to 
extend  sympathy  and  encouragement  to  those  who,  like 
himself,  found  the  earlier  stages  of  life's  journey  filled 
with    obstacles    well    nigh    insurmountable. 

Mr.  Mantle's  host  of  friends  all  over  the  state  are 
at  this  writing  (June,  1912)  urging  him  to  again  enter 
the  contest  for  United  States  senator  in  the  coming 
campaign,  and  should  he  do  so  there  are  thousands 
who  will  strive  earnestly  to  correct  the  grave  injustice 
done  him  five  years  ago  by  methods  shameful  in  their 
character. 

Mr.  Mantle  still  retains  his  home  in  Butte,  where  he 
has  resided  for  thirty-five  years.  He  enjoys  good 
health  and  is  actively  concerned  in  all  life's  duties  and 
responsibilities.  He  is  social  and  agreeable  by  nature, 
a  welcome  guest  on  all  occasions  and  enjoys  the  con- 
fidence and  good  will  of  a  host  of  friends  in  every 
section  of  the  Treasure  state.  Fraternally  he  is  asso- 
ciated with  the  Masons,  the  Odd  Fellows,  the  Elks  and 
the  Knights  of  Pythias,  having  been  the  first  grand 
chancellor  of  the  latter  organization  in  Montana. 

Thomas  C.  Witherspoon,  M.  D.  Engaged  in  the 
practice  of  his  profession  in  the  city  of  Butte,  the 
metropolis  of  Montana,  Dr.  Witherspoon  holds  secure 
prestige  as  one  of  the  distinguished  physicians  and  sur- 
geons of  this  state  and  is  also  a  citizen  of  prominence 
and  influence, — broad  minded,  loyal  and  progressive  in 
his  civic  attitude.  He  is  a  scion  in  the  agnatic  line  of 
stanch  Scotch  ancestry  and  a  representative  of  one  of 
the  old  and  patrician  families  of  the  south,  where  the 
original  representative  of  the  name  settled  about  two 
centuries  ago,  upon  his  immigration  from  the  north  of 
Ireland,  in  which  section  the  family  was  established  up- 


on removing  from  Scotland  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
on  account  of  religious  persecutions.  The  sterling 
ancestor,  of  Dr.  Witherspoon  finally  removed  from  his 
original  location  in  South  Carolina  to  Tennessee,  and 
his  cousin,  John  Witherspoon,  was  a  signer  of  that  im- 
mortal document,  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
They  were  Scotch  Presbyterians  of  the  strictest  type, 
and  from  the  time  of  the  historic  character,  John  Knox, 
the  family  has  given  in  the  various  generations  many 
representatives  to  the  ministerial  and  medical  pro- 
fessions. William  Conner,  maternal  grandfather  of  Dr. 
Witherspoon,  was  of  stanch  Irish  lineage  and  was  an 
early  settler  in  Mississippi,  where  was  solemnized  his 
marriage  to  a  daughter  of  Dr.  John  Gustin.  The  grand- 
mother was  born  in  Pennsylvania  and  was  a  child  at 
the  time  when  the  family  removed  to  Mississippi,  the 
journey  being  made  by  carriage  to  St.  Louis  and  thence 
on  a  raft  down  the  Mississippi  river  to  Natchez,  Mis- 
sissippi, where  she  was  reared  and  educated  and  where 
she  was  wedded  to  William  Conner.  The  Gustin  family 
is  of  French  lineage,  and  Dr.  James  Gustin  was  one  of 
the  prominent  pioneer  physicians  of  the  state  of  Con- 
necticut. Dr.  Witherspoon  has  records  that  give  data 
concerning  the  maternal  ancestry  as  far  back  as 
Robert  Bruce,  from  whom  he  is  a  lineal  descendent.  It 
may  also  be  noted  at  this  juncture  that  the  Doctor  has 
in  his  possession  a  highly  prized  family  heirloom,  the 
same  being  a  family  bible  issued  in  the  tenth  century 
and  written  in  an  abbreviated  Latin  text.  It  was  writ- 
ten by  a  Catholic  monk  who  resided  in  Cornwall,  Eng- 
land, and  who  devoted  forty  years  to  the  preparation 
of  this  most  interesting  and  valuable  volume. 

Dr.  Thomas  Casey  Witherspoon  was  born  in  the  city 
of  Natchez,  Mississippi,  on  the  25th  of  May,  1868,  and 
is  a  son  of  Thomas  Casey  Witherspoon,  Sr.,  and  Mary 
A.  D.  (Conner)  Witherspoon,  the  former  a  native  of 
Alabama  and  the  latter  of  Mississippi.  Prior  to  the 
Civil  war  the  family  was  one  of  wealth  and  prominence 
in  Mississippi,  but  it  suffered  to  the  full  the  vicissitudes 
incidental  to  that  great  conflict,  and  its  fortune  was 
swept  away.  The  father  of  the  Doctor  was  a  prosperous 
planter  and  cotton  broker  in  Mississippi  and  continued 
to  be  identified  with  the  cotton  business  until  his  final 
retirement.  Now  venerable  in  years,  he  resides  in  the 
city  of  Los  Angeles,  California.  They  are  folk  of  gentle 
breeding  and  most  gracious  characteristics,  and  they 
have  ever  held  secure  place  in  the  affectionate  regard  for 
those  who  have  come  within  the  immediate  sphere  of 
their  influence.  They  hold  membership  in  the  Presby- 
terian church  and  the  father  has  ever  been  a  stanch 
Democrat  in  his  political  allegiance.  Of  the  four  chil- 
dren, the  two  daughters  died  in  early  childhood,  and  the 
younger  of  the  two  sons,  William  Conner  Witherspoon, 
is  now  engaged  in  the  wholesale  tea,  coffee  and  spice 
business  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

The  early  educational  discipline  of  Dr.  Witherspoon 
was  obtained  in  private  schools  in  his  native  city,  and 
when  he  was  about  eleven  years  of  age  the  family  re- 
moved to  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  where  he  availed  himself 
of  the  advantages  of  the  public  schools,  including  the 
high  school  in  which  he  was  graduated.  He  next  en- 
tered the  St.  Louis  College  of  Pharmacy,  in  which  he 
was  graduated  in  1887.  This  technical  training  spurred 
his  ambition  to  prepare  himself  for  the  medical  profes- 
sion, and  he  accordingly  was  matriculated  in  the  Mis- 
souri Medical  College,  in  which  excellent  institution  he 
was  graduated  as  a  member  of  the  class  of  1889,  from 
which  he  received  his  well  earned  degree  of  Doctor 
of   Medicine.     In  all   examinations   during  his  prosecu- 


864 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


tion  of  the  course  in  the  medical  college  he  received  a 
uniform  award  of  one  hundred  per  cent, — an  excep- 
tional and  enviable  record  which  showed  not  .only  his 
fine  powers  of  assimilation,  but  also  his  earnest  applica- 
tion to  his  studies  and  other  incidental  work.  In  recog- 
nition of  this  precedence  the  faculty  of  the  college  pre- 
sented him  with  a  fine  gold  medal,  appropriately  in- 
scribed. He  was  the  fourth  person  to  receive  that  dis- 
tinction with  the  existence  of  the  college,  which  had  at 
that  time  covered  a  period  of  fifty-six  years.  He  has 
reason  to  feel  proud  of  the  honor  thus  accorded  to  him, 
and  his  work  in  the  college  has  typified  that  which  he  has 
accomplished  in  the  practical  activities  of  his  profession, 
of  which  he  has  become  a  distinguished  representative, 
and  in  which  he  has  gained  repute  as  a  man  of  excep- 
tional intellectual  and  technical  attainments. 

For  several  months  after  his  graduation,  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon  served  as  interne  in  the  city  hospital  of  St.  Louis 
and  in  this  connection  he  gained  varied  and  valuable 
clinical   experience. 

in  the  winter  of  1889  Dr.  Withersnoon  came  to  Mon- 
tana and  established  his  residence  in  the  city  of  Butte, 
and  after  being  engaged  in  practice  in  an  individual  way 
for  several  months  he  formed  a  professional  partnership 
with  Dr.  Charles  F.  Cooper,  with  whom  he  continued 
to  be  associated  for  one  year,  at  the  expiration  of  which 
the  alliance  was  severed,  on  account  of  the  impaired 
health  of  Dr.  Cooper,  who  went  to  the  Hawaiian  islands 
to  recuperate  his  energies.  Thereafter  Dr.  Witherspoon 
conducted  an  individual  practice  and  also  a  private  hos- 
pital until  November.  1893,  when  he  returned  to  St. 
Louis,  Missouri,  whither  he  had  been  summoned  on  ac- 
count of  the  death  of  his  wife's  mother.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  practice  in  that  city  until  November,  1896,  and 
within  that  period  he  served  as  assistant  to  the  chair 
of  anatomy  in  his  alma  mater,  the  Missouri  Medical 
College.  In  the  winter  of  1894  he  was  appointed  pro- 
fessor of  G.  U.  surgery  in  the  Marion  Sims  Medical 
College,  and  in  the  following  year  he  was  the  incum- 
bent of  the  chair  of  physiology  and  clinical  surgery  in 
this   institution. 

In  November,  1906,  Dr.  Witherspoon  returned  to 
Butte,  where  he  has  since  been  continuously  associated 
with  Dr.  H.  D.  Kister  in  a  general  practice,  which  has 
become  one  of  broad  and  representative  scope.  In 
April,  1907,  he  also  formed  a  business  and  professional 
aUiance  with  Drs.  T.  J.  Murray,  and  Donald  Campbell, 
and  they  are  associated  in  the  conducting  of  the  Mur- 
ray hospital,  a  private  institution  which  is  known  as 
one  of  the  best  in  the  state,  the  same  having  the  most 
modern  equipment  and  most  attractive  of  appointments 
and  being  a  valuable  acquisition  to  the  hospital  facilities 
of  the  Montana  metropolis.  The  hospital  is  conducted 
by  a  corporation  formed  for  the  purpose,  and  of  the 
same  Dr.  Murray  is  president ;  Dr.  Campbell,  vice  presi- 
dent ;  Mr.  A.  L.  Patterson,  secretary  and  treasurer ;  and 
Dr.  Witherspoon,  chief  surgeon.  Dr  Witherspoon  did 
effective  post-graduate  work  in  the  Missouri  Medical 
College  in  the  winters  of  1893  and  1894.  In  1897  he 
was  appointed  professor  of  operative  and  clinical  sur- 
gery in  the  Marion  Sims  Medical  College,  with  which 
he  had  previously  been  identified,  as  already  noted 
in  this  context.  About  this  time  Beaumont  Medi- 
cal College  was  consolidated  with  the  Marion  Sims 
College,  and  in  1900  the  combined  institutions  became 
affiliated  with  St.  Louis  University  at  the  medical 
department  of  the  sam.e.  Eight  months  of  that  year 
were  passed  by  Dr.  Witherspoon  in  study  and  re- 
search in  the  leading  hospitals  and  medical  colleges  of 
Vienna  and  Berlin.     In  1905  he  again  went  abroad  for 


further  advanced  post-graduate  work,  and  each  year 
visits  the  leading  medical  institutions  of  the  eastern 
states  for  the  purpose  of  doing  research  work  in  various 
professional  lines.  Since  1897  he  has  given  special  at- 
tention to  the  surgical  branch  of  his  profession  and  he 
is  known  as  one  of  the  most  skilled  surgeons  in  Mon- 
tana, with  many  fine  operations,  both  major  and  minor, 
to  his  credit. 

Dr.  Witherspoon  is  a  member  of  the  alumni  associa- 
tion of  the  Missouri  Medical  College,  and  also  that  of 
the  City  Hospital  of  St.  Louis.  He  holds  membership  in 
the  St.  Louis  Medical  Society,  the  Silver  Bow  County 
Medical  Society,  the  Montana  State  Medical  Society  and 
the  American  Medical  Association.  He  is  also  identified 
with  the  Western  Surgical  &  Gynecological  Society,  the 
Southern  Surgical  and  Gynecological  Society  and  the 
Tri-State  Medical  Society  (Iowa,  Illinois  and  Missouri) 
and  is  a  life  member  of  the  Anglo-American  Medical 
Association  of  Berlin,  Germany,  in  which  he  was  the 
fifteenth  American  physician  to  be  thus  honored.  He  is 
also  a  mernber  of  the  American  Association  of  Anato- 
mists, and  is  at  the  present  time  (1912)  president  of  the 
Montana  State  Medical  Society,  of  which  he  served  as 
vice  president  in  191 1.  He  is  chief  medical  examiner 
for  the  National  Life  Insurance  Company  in  Montana, 
and  in  his  home  city  is  a  popular  member  of  the  follow- 
ing named  and  representative  organizations :  The  Sil- 
ver Bow  Club,  the  Country  Club,  the  Red  Rock  Club, 
the  Bonita  Club,  and  the  University  Club.  He  is  spec- 
ially fond  of  fishing  and  hunting  and  finds  his  chief  di- 
version and  recreation  in  indulgence  in  these  attractive 
sports.  Though  he  has  never  had  any  desire  to  enter 
the  arena  of  practical  politics,  as  he  considers  his  pro- 
fession worthy  of  his  unqualified  allegiance,  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon is  essentially  progressive  and  loyal,  although  non- 
partisan as  a  citizen. 

On  the  2nd  of  October,  1890,  Dr.  Witherspoon  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Nina  H.  Butler,  who  was 
born  at  Dermopolis,  Alabama,  and  is  a  daughter  of 
Wallace  C.  Butler,  now  a  resident  of  St.  Louis,  and  a 
native  of  Missouri.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Witherspoon  have 
two  children:  Thomas,  Casey,  III,  who  was  born  on 
the  21  St  of  May,  1893,  and  Evelyn  B.  W.,  born  on  the 
5th  of  September,  1897. 

Senator  T.  J.  W.'\lsh.  In  the  choice  of  T.  J.  Walsh 
as  junior  United  States  senator,  Montana  contributed 
one  of  its  ablest  lawyers  and  public  men  to  the  honors 
and  activities  of  the  larger  sphere  of  national  govern- 
ment. The  campaign  of  Mr.  Walsh  for  the  place  in 
the  United  States  senate,  with  all  its  attendant  results 
in  state  politics,  is  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  Montana 
citizens,  and  affords  one  of  the  most  interesting  and 
refreshing  chapters  of  state  political  history.  As  a 
member  of  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Walsh, 
by  reason  of  his  profound  abilities,  his  progressive  atti- 
tude, and  his  thorough  training  in  political  life,  is  cer- 
tain to  become  one  of  the  strongest  individual  factors 
during  the  present   national  administration. 

Senators  Walsh  entered  politics,  in  a  personal  sense, 
only  a  few  years  ago,  but  for  more  than  twenty  years 
has  been  prominent  as  a  lawyer  in  Montana  and  the 
Northwest.  He  was  born  in  Wisconsin  in  June,  1859, 
and  began  life  as  a  school  teacher — an  occupation  which 
has  afforded  the  training  and  preparation  for  a  great 
many  other  men  eminent  in  political  and  public  life. 
He  closed  his  educational  work  as  principal  of  the 
high  school  at  Sturgeon  Bay,  Wisconsin.  While  teach- 
ing he  followed  a  rigid  course  of  private  study,  and 
when  twenty-two  years  of  age  was  awarded  a  life  cer- 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


865 


tificate  after  an  examination  covering  all  the  branches 
included  in  the  usual  college  course.  He  began  his  law- 
studies  in  the  office  of  James  Anderson,  at  Manitowoc, 
Wisconsin,  and  in  1884  was  graduated  LL.  B.  from 
the  university  of  that  state.  He  began  the  practice  of 
his  profession  at  Redfield,  South  Dakota,  in  partnership 
with  his  brother  Henry   C.   Walsh. 


date  receivmg  the  highest  number  of  votes  at  the  gen- 
eral election.  In  this  way  the  authors  of  the  law  ho?ed 
to  again  accomplish  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Walsh  relyine 
upon  their  power  and  influence  to  prevent  the  state  con 
vention  from  nammg  him  as  its  preferential  candidate. 
I  hese  calculations  failed,  for  when  the  state  convention 


In  1890  Mr.  Walsh  moved  to  Helena,  Montana,  ^^sembled  more  than  half  the  delegates  were  bound  by 
where  he  developed  a  business  of  such  proportions  that  '"structions  from  the  county  conventions  favoring  him 
in   1907  he   divided  its   responsibilities  with   Col.   C.   B.       ,  ^^  situation  no  one  was  proposed  against  him  and 

he  was  nominated  by  acclamation.     " 


Nolan,  a  former  attorney  general  of  the  state.  The 
firm  of  Walsh  &  Nolan  was  one  of  the  most  prominent 
and  successful  legal  combinations  in  the  West  at  the 
time  of  Mr.  Walsh's  election  to  the  senate.  Senator 
Walsh  is  identified  with  a  number  of  land  and  livestock 
companies  in  business  in  Montana,  and  also  has  inter- 
ests  in   timber  lands   and   mines. 

Senator  Walsh  resolutely  refused  to  become  a  can- 
didate for  any  political  office  until  his  success  in  busi- 
ness  and  professional   life   had  been  firmly  established. 
However,  there  was  never  a  time  since  his  youth  when 
public    affairs    did    not    claim    his    earnest    thought    and 
public  questions  his  close  study.     He  was  one  of  Mon- 
tana's delegates  to  the  national  Democratic  convention 
at    Denver,   in    1908,   and   again   at    Baltimore,   in    1912, 
serving    in    each    instance    on    the    platform    committee 
and  on  the  sub-committee  to  which  was  delegated  the 
actual    work    of    preparing    the    party's    declaration    of 
principles.     He  was  a   candidate  for  Congress  in   1906, 
but  the  Roosevelt  sentiment  was  strong  enough  to  hold 
for   his   opponent,    Charles   N.    Pray,   about  the   normal 
Republican    majority,    and    he    was    beaten.      However, 
at   that   time   he  became   a  potential   candidate   for   the 
honors  of  the  United  States  senatorship,  and  he  led  the 
fight  in  1910  against  Senator  Thomas  H.   Carter,  then 
one  of  the  leaders  in  the  party  in  the  upper  branch  of 
congress.     So  vigorous  was  his  campaign  that,  although 
the  Republican  candidate  for  congressman  was  elected 
by  about   five  thousand   votes,   the   people   returned   to 
a  Democratic  legislature  with  a  majority  of  seven  votes. 
Had  the  usual  caucus  been  held  and  matters  taken  their 
ordinary   course,   Mr.   Walsh   would   have   been    elected 
senator  on  the  first  day  of  the  joint  session.     However, 
powerful    supporters    of    Senator    Carter    from    beyond 
the  state,  including  the  Amalgamated  Copper  Company, 
were  able  to  dissuade  enough  Democrats   from  partici- 
pating in  a  caucus  to  defeat  the  assembling  of  one.     A 
deadlock    ensued,    which    lasted    throughout    the    entire 
session.     The  same  interests  which  used  their  power  to 
circumvent    united    action    through    a   caucus    had    pre- 
viously prevented  the   state  convention  from  naming  a 
senatorial    candidate    lest    he    should    be    the    nominee. 
Though  two-thirds  of  the  Democratic  members  of  the 
assembly  were  favorable  to  the  candidacy  of  Mr.  Walsh, 
the  minority  was  able  to  prevent  his  election.     His  sup- 
porters   remained  firm    until   the   very   last   day   of  the 
session,  when,  after  fruitlessly  balloting  for  more  than 
seven  hours,  the  assembly  chose  Judge  Henry  L.  Myers. 
For  several  years  Mr.  Walsh  had  persistently  advo- 
cated   a    primary    election    law    in    Montana.      Popular 
demand    for    such   a   law   exerted   a   powerful    pressure 
upon   the   legislature   about   the   time   of  the   senatorial 
deadlock  just  mentioned.     To  appease  this  popular  de- 
mand, the  legislature  enacted  a  makeshift  law,  designed 
for  the   express   purpose   of  thwarting  the   will   of  the 
people.      It    authorized    the    state   party   conventions    to 
nominate    candidates    for    the    office    of    United    States 
senator.     It    further   provided   that    each    candidate    for 
the  legislature  might,  if  he  saw  fit,  file  an  official  state- 
ment,   designated    in    the   law    as    Statement    No.    i,    to 
the  effect  that  if  elected  he  would  vote  for  the  candi- 


t,o„  of  ,„.    Mr.  Walsh  recdvS  .,!e"  .il'^heT'vS'e  1S 

for  any  candidate  on  the  ticket,  and  led  the  senatorial 

about  ten  thousand  votes,  and  Senator  Joseph  M 
Dixon,  the  Progressive  candidate,  by  about  six  thou- 
sand. The  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  election  of  sena- 
tors   by_  direct    vote    of    the    people    being    particularly 

fhTuT.f'AT^u  '1^'"'^  °^  the  repeated  scandals 
that  had  attended  the  choice  under  the  old  system,  every 
newly  elected  member  of  the  assembly,  save  one,  was 
bound  by  Statement  No.  i.  One-half  of  the  upper 
house,  however,  having  been  elected  before  the  enact- 
ment of  the  law  providing  for  such  a  pledge,  were  un- 
constrained except  by  the  moral  force  of  the  vote 
indicating  the  popular  choice.  However,  the  Democrats 
secured  a  clear  majority  in  each  house,  and  when  the 
vote  was  taken  every  member  of  the  assembly,  includ- 
ing Democrats,  Progressives  and  Republicans,  and  one 
Socialist,  responded  in  favor  of  Mr.   Walsh. 

As  this  article  is  published  before  Mr.  Walsh  begins 
his  actual  career  as  senator,  it  is  of  course  impossible 
to  indicate  the  exact  lines  of  his  position  as  a  member 
of  the  upper  branch  of  congress  with  regard  to  the 
public  questions  pressing  for  solution.  However  it  is 
noteworthy  that  Mr.  Walsh  has  devoted  much  of  his 
time  during  the  last  ten  years  to  the  study  of  public 
questions,  and  has  formed  his  conclusions  upon  the 
basis  of  original  research.  He  does  not  submit  his 
judgment  to  that  of  others  unless  he  is  well  fortified 
by  opinions  of  his  own.  In  191 1,  Senator  Walsh  de- 
livered before  the  Washington  State  Bar  Association 
a  monograph  on  the  recall  of  judges,  an  article  which 
was  printed  as  a  public  document  and  widely  read. 
He  has  made  a  special  study  of  railroad  rates  and 
regulations.  He  holds  well  defined  views  on  ques- 
tions of  particular  interest  to  the  West,  and  his  course 
will  be  watched  with  special  interest  in  his  attitude 
with  regard  to  the  activities  of  the  government  con- 
cerning the  disposition  of  the  public  land.  He  has 
always  favored  the  pursuit  of  a  policy  that  would  make 
the  public  lands  of  this  country  as  attractive  to  set- 
tlers and  as  inviting  to  capital  as  any  the  Canadian 
government  has  to  offer.  He  favors  development  of 
the  hydro-electric  power  sites  on  the  public  domain, 
with  proper  safeguards  against  monopoly,  and  at  the 
same  time  he  is  opposed  to  the  leasing  system,  pro- 
posed by  many  students  of  the  question,  since  he 
believes  that  the  rents  derived  by  the  government  from 
such  a  source  would  in  the  end  simply  be  a  tax  on  the 
people   of  the  locality  in  which  the  power   is  used. 

Senator  Walsh  is  a  man  of  splendid  earnestness  and 
of  incorruptible  integrity.  For  this  reason  the  people 
of  Montana  may  feel  that  their  own  interests,  as  well 
as  those  of  the  nation,  are  entrusted  wisely,  so  far  as 
he  has  control  over  them.  As  affording  some  addi- 
tional information  concerning  his  ability  and  his  atti- 
tude towards  larger  public  affairs,  there  may  be  re- 
called some  of  his  prominent  activities  as  a  lawyer 
within  recent  years.  As  counsel  in  a  suit  prosecuted 
in  that  state  several  years  ago,   Mr.   Walsh  is  credited 


866 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


with  having  dealt  a  vital  blow  to  trusts  organized 
under  the  New  Jersey  laws.  The  articles  of  the  cor- 
poration involved  and  its  by-laws  were  framed  so  as 
to  deny  the  minority  stockholders  an  opportunity  to 
inspect  the  corporation  books.  Only  by  consent  of  the 
board  of  directors,  or  by  a  vote  of  the  stockholders  in 
regular  session,  could  the  books  be  inspected.  Mr. 
Walsh  contended,  and  succeeded  in  establishing,  that 
this  was  in  contravention  of  the  spirit  of  the  New 
Jersey  law,  which,  although  not  expressly  so  providing 
he  insisted  gave  to  every  stockholder  the  right  at  all 
reasonable    times    to    inspect    the   books. 

About  the  same  time  Mr.  Walsh  was  special  counsel 
for  the  government  in  a  case  which  restored  to  the 
public  domain  in  Montana  coal  lands  worth  several 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  Valuable  as  was  the  de- 
cision in  this  case  to  Montana,  it  was  more  important 
as  opening  a  way  by  which  the  government  has  smce 
been  able  to  secure  the  restoration  of  thousands  of 
acres  of  valuable  lands  elsewhere.  The  Northern 
Pacific  had  acquired  the  Montana  coal  land  in  lieu  of 
worthless  land  relinquished  by  it  in  the  Mount  Rainier 
National  Park,  under  an  act  of  congress  permitting 
the  selection  of  agricultural  lands  in  lieu  of  those  sur- 
rendered It  asserted,  however,  that  by  reason  of  the 
peculiar  wording  of  the  act  the  classification  made  by 
the  surveyor  was  a  final  determination  of  its  character. 
The  question  had  been  passed  upon  previously  by  the 
general  land  office  and  by  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
Mr  Hitchcock,  who  had  sustained  the  contention  oi 
the  railroad  that  the  classification  itself  was  conclusive 
evidence  of  the  character  of  the  land,  and  that  the 
determination  so  made  could  not  be  overturned  The 
view  taken  by  Mr.  Walsh  was  sustained  and  the  patents 
to  the  railroad  company  annulled. 

Mrs.  Walsh  is  prominent  in  club  affairs  of  the  state 
and  has  been  the  president  of  the  Montana  Federation 
of  Women's  Clubs.  She  has  always  taken  an  active 
interest  in  various  civic  organizations  in  Helena  and 
in  humanitarian  work.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Walsh  have  one 
daughter,  who  is  a  graduate  of  Vassal  College. 

Gottfried  R.  M.  Stritzel.  About  twenty  years  ago  a 
young  German  about  eighteen  years  old,  came  to  Amer- 
ica, a  stranger,  without  capital  and  on  application  for 
work  to  the  office  of  the  German  Consul  at  Montreal, 
received  same  in  the  capacity  of  water  boy  at  ninety 
cents  a  day  in  the  McLaughlin  Lumber  Co.'s  yard  at 
Arnprior,    Ontario,   Canada. 

Industry,  the  ability  to  adapt  himself  to  circumstances, 
good  business  judgment  and  enterprise  have  since  made 
this  German-American  a  wealthy  and  influential  citi- 
zen and  today  Mr.  G.  R.  M.  Stritzel  is  one  of  the 
wealthy  residents  of  northwest  Montana  and  controls 
a  large  share  of  the  commercial  enterprise  of  the  town 
of  Poison,  which  has  been  his  home  since  1908,  the 
year  before  this  reservation  was  opened  to  settlement. 
Mr.  G.  R.  M.  Stritzel,  who  was  the  third  of  six  children, 
born  in  Blindgallen,  East  Prussia,  Germany,  on  August 
9,  1875,  attended  the  German  Gymnasium  School  until 
he  was  fourteen  years  and  seven  months  old  and  then 
began  an  apprenticeship  in  a  very  large  mercantile  estab- 
lishment, at  which  he  served  four  years.  At  the  end 
of  that  time  he  set  out  for  the  new  world,  having  dur- 
ing this  period  of  time  gathered  very  valuable  experi- 
ence, but  leaving  without  friends,  influence  and  capital, 
and  also  having  a  rather  inadequate  knowledge  of  the 
language  spoken  in  America  he  arrived  at  Montreal  on 
June  19,  1893,  and  began  at  Arnprior,  Ontario,  Canada, 
his  practical  career  in  the  manner  above  described,  in 


the  fall  of  this  year,  after  having  (out  of  these  little 
wages)  saved  enough  for  the  expenses  of  the  trip, 
he  went  west  and  obtained  a  position  as  hardware 
clerk  in  the  general  merchandise  business  of  Schultz 
and  Hansen  at  Gretna,  in  southern  Manitoba  and  in 
the  summer  of  1897  with  a  capital  of  $230.00  estab- 
lished at  Gnadenthal,  a  village  close  to  Gretna,  a  mer- 
chandise business  of  his  own.  He  continued  in  busi- 
ness in  Manitoba  until  1904,  when  he  sold  out  and 
moved  to  Saskatchewan,  starting  another  business 
known  under  the  firm  name  of  the  Watson  Lumber  and 
Trading  Co.  in  the  then  new  town  of  Watson,  on  the 
C.  N.  Ry.  main  line,  while  there  he  held  some  public 
offices,  such  as  notary  public,  etc.,  in  connection  with 
business,  and  in  the  fall  of  this  year  (1904)  Mr.  Peter  O. 
Spaberg,  then  a  very  ambitious  young  rancher, 
whose  able  qualities  as  a  business  man  are  excellent, 
entered  his  employ  and  has  ever  since  been  with  the 
firm,  until  it  sold  out  and  is  at  this  date  associated  with 
him  in  his  business  enterprises  at  Poison. 

In  July  1908  Mr.  Stritzel  transferred  his  residence 
and  principal  activities  to  Montana  and  established  at 
Poison  the  Stritzel-Spaberg  Lumber  Company.  This 
company  incorporated  with  a  paid  up  capital  then  of 
$15,000  has  the  most  extensive  lumber  trade  in  this 
part  of  the  state,  and  is  one  of  the  leading  concerns  in 
the  commercial  enterprises  of  Poison.  Mr.  Stritzel  is 
president  and  general  manager,  and  Mr.  Spaberg  is 
vice-president,  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  company. 

Mr.  Stritzel  is  vice-president  of  the  Security  State 
Bank  at  Poison,  vice-president  of  the  Flathead  Power 
and  Traction  Company,  a  stockholder  in  the  Montana 
Fire  Insurance  Company,  and  has  extensive  real  estate 
holdings  in  Poison  and  in  Canada.  He  is  a  member  of 
the  executive  committee  of  the  Poison  Chamber  -f 
Commerce  and  belongs  to  the  German  Lutheran  church. 
In  political  affairs  he  is  considered  Democratic. 

Air.  Stritzel  has  the  finest  residence  in  Poison,  built 
at  a  cost  of  fourteen  thousand  dollars,  a  modern  and 
attractive  home.  He  was  married  in  Dresden  church, 
near  Langdon,  North  Dakota,  March  15,  1898,  to  Miss 
Lena  Schnell,  a  daughter  of  Frank  Schnell,  who  is  now 
a  resident  of  Claresholm  in  South  Alberta,  Canada. 
They  are  the  parents  of  four  children  all  born  in 
Canada  and  named  as  follows :  Clara,  Albert,  Helen 
and   Florence. 

The  following  few  items  are  taken  out  of  the  history 
of  Mr.  Stritzel's  ancestors :  Mr.  Stritzel's  great-grcat- 
great-grandfather,  Johann  Friedrich  Stritzel,  a  noble- 
man, was  born  April  15,  1668,  in  Kaltwangen,  East 
Prussia ;  his  wife,  Christine,  was  the  daughter  of  a 
Swedish  count,  who  at  the  same  time  was  a  command- 
ing general  in  the  army  and  he  died  under  Karl  Xll  in 
1698  during  the  war  with  Poland. 

The  son  of  this  couple,  Johann  Friedrich,  the  great- 
great-grandfather,  was  born  on  December  10,  1716.  He 
married  Louise  von  Troshen,  and  their  son  Friederich 
Stritzel,  great-grandfather  of  Gottfried  R.  M.  Stritzel 
was  born  January  10,  1767.  He  was  a  Black  Hussar 
and  took  a  very  active  part  in  the  Polish  war  in  I793- 
On  October  10,  1798,  he  married  Maria  Bartsch  and 
became  manager  of  the  two  domains :  Alsnienen  and 
Wolmen,  belonging  to  the  Count  of  Eulenburg,  with 
headquarters  at  Schoenbruch.  Here  he  died  December 
10,  1822.  Gottfried  Stritzel,  the  youngest  of  his  three 
children  was  born  April  15,  1812.  He  served  in  the 
Kaiser-Alexander  regiment  in  Berlin  and  when  he  left 
the  militia  became  an  art  gardener  and  followed  this 
profession   practically   until   his   death,   which   occurred 


,'J^ 


Elnc  by  Hsr-jryTb-yloT"  Jr-  Dhicca-gc 


^^A^C^~r-i   —^P/^^ 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


867 


on  July  3,  1898,  the  memorial  day,  when  his  son  Fried- 
rich  (the  father  of  our  subject,  Gottfried  R.  M.  Strit- 
zel)  was  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Koeniggraetz,  Aus- 
tria. 

Friedrich  Stritzel,  who  was  one  of  a  family  of  six 
children,  was  born  April  28.  1843,  in  Linkehnen,  East 
Prussia.  On  October  i,  1862,  he  joined  the  8th  Com- 
pany 5th  East  Prussia  Grenadier  Regiment  No.  41, 
and  retired  as  underofficer  in  the  Landwehr  on  Octo- 
ber I,  1865.  On  the  15th  of  February,  1866,  he  joined 
the  3d  Company  of  the  2d  East  Prussia  Grenadier  Regi- 
ment No.  3  and  fought  in  the  battles  of  Trautenau, 
Koeniggraetz  and  Tabitschau.  In  1871  after  coming 
out  of  the  war  as  an  invalid  he  received  a  commission 
as  controlleur  in  the  customs  office  at  Blindgallen  in 
which  town  his  son  Gottfried  R.  AI.  Stritzel  was  born. 
After  several  advancements  Friedrich  Stritzel  rose  to 
the  rank  as  the  superior  of  the  customs  office  in  Kl. 
Kallweitschen  and  later  in  the  town  of  Heilsberg.  For 
serving  the  German  Crown  and  Fatherland  in  these  dif- 
ferent ways  for  about  thirty-five  years  he  now  receives 
since  October  i,  1900,  a  very  substantial  Government 
pension.  His  wife  whose  maiden  name  was  Anna  Kab- 
bacher  (a  Salzburgerin)  died  on  March  22,  1884  (Em- 
peror William  Fs  birthday).  Of  this  marriage  there 
were  six  children,  four  of  whom  are  still  living :  Fried- 
erich,  Bertha,  Gottfried  R.  M.  and  Amanda. 

Nelson  Story.  The  amassing  of  a  great  fortune  may 
be  the  end  and  aim  of  many  a  man's  life,  but  to  gather 
wealth  through  business  ability  and  to  distribute  it 
wisely  and  well,  has  been  the  ambition  of  such  men  as 
Nelson  Story,  who  is  credited  with  one  of  the  largest 
individual  fortunes  in  the  state  of  Montana.  Few  men 
have  impressed  themselves  more  conspicuously  on  the 
business  development  of  this  state  and  his  influence  has 
also  been  notable  in  the  founding  and  fostering  of  enter- 
prises devoted  to  high  ideals  along  the  lines  of  educa- 
tion and  good  citizenship.  The  life  of  every  prominent 
and  successful  man  of  the  West  has  been  more  or  less 
adventurous,  and  that  of  Mr.  Story  has  been  no  excep- 
tion. He  was  born  in  1838,  in  Meigs  county,  Ohio,  and 
is  a  son  of  Ira  and  Hannah  (Gile)  Story.  The  first 
record  of  the  Story  family  in  New  England  that  has 
been  preserved,  relates  that  one  William  Story  came 
to  the  colonies  in  1637,  from  England,  and  gained  per- 
mission to  erect  and  operate  a  sawmill.  Ira  Story  was 
a  son  of  John  and  Priscilla  (Choate)  Story,  the  former 
a  son  of  John  and  Hannah  Story,  a  grandson  of  Deacon 
Seth  Story  and  a  great-grandson  of  William  the  settler. 
Ira  Story  and  his  wife  were  both  born  in  New  Hamp- 
shire and  both  died  in  Meigs  county,  Ohio,  the  former 
when  aged  fifty-six  years  and  the  latter  at  the  age  of 
fifty-four  years.    Their  family  consisted  of  four  children. 

Nelson  Story  grew  up  with  the  advantages  that  accrue 
to  a  boy  who  has  to  toil  in  the  open  air,  this  giving 
encouragement,  perhaps,  to  an  energetic  habit  of  life 
that  has  attended  Mr.  Story  throughout  his  career.  Dur- 
ing this  period  on  the  home  farm  he  attended  the  dis- 
trict schools  and  in  order  to  secure  further  educational 
training,  taught  school  one  term  to  provide  for  the 
same.  He  attended  Ohio  State  University  at  Athens, 
Ohio,  for  about  two  years.  When  his  father  died  he 
was  thrown  entirely  upon  his  own  resources  and  con- 
tinued school  teaching  until  he  had  secured  sufficient 
capital  to  enable  him  to  reach  the  West,  toward  which 
section  he  had  long  been  directing  his  thoughts.  In  a 
busy  life  like  that  of  Mr.  Story  it  would  require  a  volume 
to  justly  place  before  the  reader  every  step  in  his  busi- 
ness progress  and  to  closely  follow  the  voung  school 
Vol.  II— 2 


teacher  until  fortune  began  to  smile  on  his  efforts  and 
he  began  to  feel  sure  that  his  judgment  had  led  him 
aright  in  directing  his  steps  beyond  the  Mississippi 
river. 

In  the  early  days  of  freighting  between  the  Missouri 
river  and  the  Rocky  mountains.  Nelson  Story  took  part, 
and  the  vivid  tales  of  the  adventures  of  that  life  still' 
possess  a  magic  charm  for  the  ears  of  the  younger  gen- 
eration. In  the  course  of  time  Mr.  Story  made  invest- 
ments in  California  and  the  territories,  his  excellent 
business  judgment  leading  to  many  profitable  purchases, 
and  he  personally  engaged  in  placer  mining  in  Montana 
as  well  as  in  other  sections  near  and  remote.  While  his 
mining  interests  increased,  he  engaged  also  in  lumber- 
ing and  acquired  large  bodies  of  land  and  went  exten- 
sively into  the  stock  business.  In  1892,  when  he  sold 
13,000  head  of  cattle  from  his  ranch,  it  was  believed  to 
be  one  of  the  largest  transactions  in  live  stock  that  had 
ever  been  recorded  in  northwest  ranching.  Finance  has 
also  claimed  his  attention  and  he  has  been  president  and 
the  largest  stockholder  in  the  Gallatin  Valley  National 
Bank  at  Bozeman,  Alontana,  which  city  claims  him  as  a 
resident.  In  addition  to  erecting  here  one  of  the  most 
palatial  private  residences  along  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  west  of  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  he  has  built  busi- 
ness blocks  along  the  leading  streets,  has  improved  much 
real  estate  and  has  contributed  many  thousands  of  dol- 
lars to  churches  and  schools  and  to  assist  both  public 
and  private  enterprises  from  which  he,  personally,  reaps 
but  little  reward,  but  these  contribute  to  the  general 
welfare. 

Mr.  Story  was  married  in  early  manhood  to  Miss 
Ellen  Trent,  and  seven  children  were  born  to  them,  the 
four  survivors  being:  Rose,  who  is  married  and  the 
mother  of  three  sons  and  one  daughter ;  Nelson,  Jr.,  who 
married  and  has  one  son  and  one  daughter ;  Thomas  B., 
whose  family  also  consists  of  a  son  and  daughter;  and 
Walter  P.,  who  is  a  graduate  of  Shattuck  College,  Fari- 
bault, Minnesota.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Story  have  given  their 
children  exceptional  educational  as  well  as  social  advan- 
tages. In  addition  to  the  beautiful  summer  home  at 
Bozeman,  Mr.  Story  and  family  have  an  equally  attrac- 
tive one  for  the  winter  at  Los  Angeles,  California.  The 
family  attend  the  Episcopal  church.  Politically  Mr. 
Story  has  always  been  a  Republican.  Personally  Mr. 
Story  is  kind,  genial  and  approachable  and  those  who 
have  known  him  for  more  than  a  quarter  of^  a  century 
see  no  change  in  his  manner  with  a  change  iii  his  for- 
tunes. He  was  hearty  and  hospitable  in  his  pioneer  log 
cabin  and  he  is  equally  so  to  the  deserving  in  his  stately 
homes.  The  cut  of  his  visitor's  coat  does  not  bother 
him— it's  the  honest  man  beneath  it  that  he  welcomes. 
His  life  has  been  such  that  fidelity  and  honesty  have 
assumed  value  to  him  and  he  is  able  to  discern  true  man- 
liness under  a  forbidding  guise.  He  may  tell  of  experi- 
ences in  the  past  which  revealed  the  same  to  him  on 
many  occasions  and  of  times  of  danger  and  excitement, 
of  combats  with  Indians  and  struggles  with  breakers  of 
law  and  order,  but  through  it  all  the  listener  will  recog- 
nize the  underlying  sense  of  justice,  the  wise  judgment 
and  the  honesty  of  purpose.  In  the  retrospect  Mr.  Story 
can  look  with  pardonable  pride  over  his  many  honor- 
able achievements  and  can  surely  take  pleasure  in  the 
great  esteem  in  which  he  is  held  by  his  fellow  citizens. 

Story  of  the  Man  who  Hung  George  Ives 

The  hanging  of  George  Ives  in  1863,  was  one  of  the 
most  exciting  events  which  stirred  the  new  country  of 
that   day.     Nelson  Story,   Sr.,  of  Bozeman,  is  the  man 


868 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


who  took  the  place  of  the  over-awed  sheriff  and  carried 
out  the  stern  edicts  of  the  law,  and  he  it  is  who  tells 
the  following  story,  taken  from  the  Republican  Courier 
of  February  16,  1909 : 

(By  Nelson  Story,  Sr.) 

"Much  has  already  been  written  concerning  events  of 
the  early  days  of  Montana  and  although  the  general  field 
has  been  pretty  thoroughly  covered  and  the  events  very 
correctly  narrated,  there  are  still  many  thrilling  inci- 
dents which  occurred  but  have  never  been  in  print. 

"Doctor  Deams,  Mr.  N.  P.  Langford,  and  others,  have 
given  interesting  facts  in  their  accounts  of  the  settle- 
ment of  eastern  Idaho,  the  discovery  of  gold,  and  the 
formation  of  vigilance  committees,  etc. 

"The  writer  was  a  resident  of  Summit,  Alder  Gulch, 
in  the  summer  of  1863,  occupied  in  the  packing  of  sup- 
plies and  selling  them  to  the  miners  of  the  gulch.  About 
the  first  of  December,  1863,  a  man  appeared  in  Summit. 
He  had  come  from  the  Bitter  Root  valley  with  a  wagon- 
load  of  potatoes  to  the  Nevada,  or  Lower  Town,  some 
two  miles  below  Virginia  City,  which  he  wished  to  sell. 

"I  bought  the  potatoes,  went  the  following  day  with 
my  pack  outfit,  consisting  of  about  fourteen  Mexican 
boros,  to  the  Lower  Town,  where  I  arrived  about  the 
middle  of  the  afternoon.  After  depositing  my  pack 
outfit  in  a  hay  corral  I  procured  my  dinner  and  then 
went  to  about  the  center  of  the  town,  then  consisting 
of  a  row  of  one-story  log  buildings  upon  either  side  of 
the  one  street  for  a  distance,  parallel  with  Alder  Gulch, 
of  a  quarter  of  a  mile. 

"Here  the  trial  of  Geo.  Ives  was  in  progress.  He 
was  being  tried  for  the  killing  of  a  German  by  the 
name  of  Nicholas  Tabault,  in  the  Stinkingwater  valley, 
near  the  ranch  of  Rogert  Dempsey. 

"The  jury  consisted  of  twenty-four  members.  Colonel 
Sanders  was  prosecutor,  Robert  Hereford  acting  sheriff. 
The  trial  took  place  in  the  open,  out  of  doors,  in  front 
of  log  buildings,  on  the  west  side  of  the  street.  Benches 
and  logs  served  as  seats;  a  wagon  body  for  the  judge's 
stand.  Guarding  this  honorable  court  some  hundred 
men,  with  guns  in  their  hands,  stood  and  sat  in  a  circle 
around  the  prisoner  and  jury. 

"About  five  o'clock  the  jury  retired  to  a  nearby  cabin. 
They  were  out  but  a  short  time.  It  was  fast  growing 
dark.  As  they  took  their  seats  again  upon  the  jury 
bench,  Col.  W.  F.  Sanders  immediately  stepped  forth 
upon  a  bench  and  in  a  clear  tone  of  voice  announced 
the  decision  of  the  jury — which  was  'guilty'— twenty- 
three  deciding  in  the  affirmative — one  dissenting. 

"Sanders  spoke  for  a  few  minutes  about  as  follows: 
'The  dissenting  juror  is  one  of  the  road  agents,  beyond 
all  reasonable  doubt,'  and  advised  hanging  the  prisoner, 
Ives,  immediately.  He  further  said  that  a  move  would 
be  made  to  rescue  the  prisoner;  that  there  were  many 
lawless  people  there  and  more  were  assembling. 

"At  this  time  a  crowd  of  spectators  numbering  several 
thousand  had  gathered  and  before  this  gathering  the 
attorney  defending  the  prisoner  asked  that  Ives  might 
have  time  to  fix  up  his  business  affairs,  which  was  con- 
sented to.  This  took  up  about  one  hour  and  by  the  time 
he  had  finished,  darkness  had  set  in  upon  us.  it  being 
about  seven  o'clock. 

"The  air  was  filled  with  apprenhension  and  upon  hear- 
mg  Sander's  speech  and  warning  of  rescue,  the  writer, 
bemg  fully  equipped  with  pistol  and  carbine,  stepped 
forth  mto  the  guard  without  being  invited,  for  all  the 
guard  were  made  up  of  volunteers.  Hereford  ordered  a 
hollow  square  to  be  made  around  the  prisoner,  marched 
us  with  the  prisoner  up  the  road  to  the  east  some  two 
hundred  yards,  then  side  stepped  us  to  the  west  into  a 
vacant  space  about  twenty  feet  square,  and  between  two 
one-story  log  buildings.  Two  logs  were  extended  across 
from  one  building  to  the  other  forming  ridge-poles. 
From  about  the  center  of  these  logs  was  suspended  a 


rope  with  noose  affixed  and  a  large  dry  goods  box  for 
a  drop. 

"We  formed  in  rank  upon  either  side  of  the  open 
space  facing  outward  to  keep  the  crowd  from  invading 
the  inclosure.  The  adjoining  buildings  were  soon  cov- 
ered with  people.  Hereford  put  Ives  upon  the  box  im- 
mediately with  his  hands  pinioned  behind  him,  facing 
east.  The  writer  stood  about  in  the  center  of  the  line 
on  the  west.  At  my  left  shoulder  stood  Benjamin  Eze- 
kiel,  a  boarding  house  keeper  for  miners  in  Summit. 
Upon  my  right  stood  a  boy  not  over  twenty-one.  Some 
one  of  the  guard  asked  Ives  if  he  killed  the  Dutchman. 
'No,  I  did  not,'  he  answered.  'Who  did?'  was  asked. 
'Alex.  Carter,'  he  replied. 

"Sheriff  Hereford  then  got  upon  the  big  box,  adjusted 
the  noose  around  Ives'  neck,  while  upon  the  east  build- 
ing and  directly  over  Hereford's  head,  a  rescuing  party 
made  up  of  a  number  of  men,  stood  with  their  revolvers 
in  their  hands  making  threats. 

"One  fellow  said  that  he  would  shoot  the  rope  off. 
Another  that  he  would  shoot  Hereford.  One  man 
stepped  out'  upon  the  two  logs  as  if  to  carry  out  his 
threat.  Hereford  jumped  down  from  the  box,  dodged 
under  the  projecting  gable  end  of  the  east  building  from 
where  he  shouted,  'What  do  you  say  boys,  shall  we  hang 
him?'    No  one  responded. 

"I  took  Ezekiel  by  the  right  shoulder,  gave  him  the 
order  to  take  hold  of  the  box  upon  which  Ives  stood. 
Quick  as  thought  we  took  the  box  from  under  Ives  and 
down  he  came  with  a  crash  into  the  rope.  Ezekiel  and 
I  stepped  back  to  our  places,  our  guns  in  our  hands 
cocked,  ready  for  action. 

"The  crowd  threw  themselves  upon  the  ground,  fall- 
ing over  each  other  as  they  came  down,  for  they  feared 
the  guns  of  the  guard  who  were  now  much  excited. 
A  shot,  purposely  or  accidentally  fired,  would  have 
caused  the  guard  to  shoot  into  the  crowd,  although  in 
the  darkness  they  could  not  have  distinguished  friend 
from  foe.  It  was  so  dark  that  only  well  known  acquaint- 
ances could  with  difficulty  apprehend  each  other  close  by. 

"The  would-be  assassins  upon  the  roof  of  the  east 
cabin  quickly  disappeared.  The  crowd  melted  away.  A 
doctor  was  brought  in  who  pronounced  Ives  dead.  When 
Ives,  the  day  before,  was  arrested  near  the  ranch  of 
Robert  Dempsey,  Dempsey  and  a  tall  cadaverous  look- 
ing man  carrying  the  name  of  Long  John,  were  arrested 
as  participants.  They  were  put  under  guard  in  a  cabin 
adjoining  the  place  where  court  proceedings  were  being 
held  to  try  Ives. 

"There  were  several  log  fires  burning.  Our  guard  re- 
traced their  steps  to  these  fires.  The  rough  element, 
those  dissatisfied  with  the  hanging  of  Ives,  were  doing 
some  loud  talking.  An  old  lawyer  filled  with  booze  was 
leading  in  denunciations  of  the  hanging.  We  took  him 
and  put  him  in  the  improvised  jail  with  Dempsey  and 
Long  John. 

"About  ten  o'clock,  one  Bill  Hunter,  who  ran  a  saloon 
situated  on  the  west  side  of  the  street  some  two  hundred 
yards  below  our  camp  fires  (said  saloon  was  noted  as 
being  the  headquarters  for  the  road  agents),  came  out 
of  his  front  door  with  hat  and  coat  off  and  in  a  loud 
voice  denounced  the  stranglers  who  had  hung  Geo.  Ives. 

"With  one  impulse  to  put  him  in  with  Dempsey  and 
Long  John,  a  dozen  of  us  started  to  arrest  him — we 
were  on  the  double  quick  and  got  almost  upon  him 
before  he  saw  us.  Charles  Brown  was  in  the  lead,  I 
was  next.  Brown  carried  a  double  barreled  shot  gun 
and  I  a  carbine  (an  army  affair)  which  loaded  at  the 
breech  with  fixed  ammunition  and  a  large  hat  cap  upon 
a  tube. 

"Hunter  sprang  for  the  door  of  his  saloon — Brown 
grabbing  to  get  hold  of  him  and  I  bringing  up  behind 
Brown  in  order  to  assist  in  case  of  a  catch.  Into  the 
saloon  through  the  northwest  corner  of  the  building  (a 
log  one-story  affair  somewhat  spacious  in  size)  we  went. 
The  bar  was  in  the  southeast  corner  of  the  building. 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


869 


the  stove  in  about  the  center  of  the  room.  There  was  a 
door  in  the  southwest  corner  of  this  room  leading  to  an 
adjoining  apartment.  This  door  opened  outward  and 
Hunter  made  for  it  with  Brown  reaching  for  him.  As 
Hunter  and  Brown  passed  the  west  end  of  the  bar  coun- 
ter, out  jumped  a  man,  the  bar  keeper,  his  hat  and  coat 
off,  with  a  big  revolver  in  his  hand  pressed  close  to 
Brown's  back.  I  gave  him  a  vigorous  thrust  with  my 
carbine  which  brought  him  to  a  right  about  face  looking 
into  the  muzzle  of  my  gun.  I  ordered  him  to  give  up 
the  pistol.  He  held  up  both  hands.  As  I  reached  to 
take  the  pistol  my  carbine  slipped  in  my  left  hand  and 
being  at  full  cock  my  little  finger  displaced  the  hat  cap. 
I  then  drew  my  revolver.  A  bystander  took  the  pistol 
from  his  hand. 

"Brown  pursued  Hunter  to  the  back  door  and  Hunter, 
after  passing  through,  slammed  the  door  back  against 
Brown.  Brown,  with  one  thrust  of  his  double  barreled 
gun  knocked  the  door  from  its  hinges  into  the  next 
room  where  there  was  no  light.  Brown  did  not  pursue 
further  but  turned  to  see  the  bar  keeper  give  up  his 
pistol. 

"No  less  than  one  hundred  people  were  in  the  saloon 
at  the  time,  many  of  whom  were  road  agents.  Brown 
and  I  kept  our  guns  presented  at  the  crowd  as  we 
backed  to  the  door  which  had  been  closed  behind  us. 
Brown  opened  the  door  as  both  my  hands  were  full  (a 
gun  in  one  and  a  pistol  in  the  other)  then  we  stepped 
out.  Our  companions  had  balked  at  the  door  and  did  not 
come  into  the  saloon. 

"We  were  obliged  to  return  to  the  camp  fires  without 
our  prisoner,  but  very  thankful  to  return  with  whole 
bodies  for  one  slip  or  mistake  or  the  least  bit  of  hesita- 
tion on  our  part  would  have  brought  many  pistols  to 
bear  upon  us.  We  were  the  aggressors  ready  to  shoot 
at  the  first  demonstration. 

"Alexander  Carter,  who  killed  the  Dutchman,  and  four 
others,  road  agents,  left  for  Deer  Lodge  that  night. 
They  were  all  hung  before  spring.  Bill  Hunter  was 
hung  that  winter  near  Manhattan,  in  Gallatin  valley. 

"The  next  day  after  the  execution  of  Ives,  Robert 
Dempsey  and  Long  John  were  examined  by  the  court, 
found  innocent  of  any  wrong  doing  and  released.  Demp- 
sey had  an  Indian  woman  and  family  and  had  been  in 
the  country  some  years.  Long  John  possessed  an  In- 
dian woman  and  little  else  of  this  world's  goods.  Sher- 
iff Robert  Hereford  was  then  upwards  of  fifty  years  of 
age.  I  do  not  now  recall  to  mind  the  judge  who  tried 
the  case  against  Ives,  or  the  attorney  who  defended 
him. 

"At  the  break  of  day  the  following  morning  after  the 
hanging,  I  was  packing  my  potatoes  for  the  Summit, 
some  ten  miles  away,  over  a  'trail  where  one  boro  fol- 
lowed another  in  single  file.  These  events  occurred  be- 
fore vigilance  committees  had  been  formed. 

"Charles  Brown  was  a  portly  young  German,  about 
twenty-seven  years  of  age,  lived  in  Miles  City  where  he 
kept  a  livery  for  many  years  after.  He  died  in  Klon- 
dike some  seven  years  ago. 

"Benjamin  Ezekiel  was  a  man  of  about  thirty  years 
of  age  at  that  time.-  He  merchandized  in  Helena  for 
years  after  and  died  there. 

"Of  the  hundred  or  more  people  in  Bill  Hunter's  sa- 
loon the  night  that  Ives  was  hung  those  living  will  rec- 
ollect the  attempt  to  arrest  Hunter. 

"I  do  not  think  Hereford  ever  knew  who  took  the 
box  from  under  Ives  while  he  (Hereford)  was  in  such 
fear  of  his  life  that  he  had  lost  control  of  himself. 

"After  eastern  Idaho  had  been  erected  from  Montana, 
the  first  legislature  at  Bannack  voted  Hereford  five  hun- 
dred dollars  for  services  rendered  in  hanging  Geo.  Ives. 

"Ives  would  have  been  rescued  in  less  than  ten  sec- 
onds if  the  large  dry  goods  box  had  not  been  removed 
as  it  was  in  the  moment  of  excitement  and  indecision 
of  the  sheriff." 


Ronald  Higgins  is  striving  under  a  cloud  that  it  is 
difficult  to  dissipate  or  overshadow ;  the  cloud  of  be- 
ing merely  his  father's  son  when  that  father  was  one 
of  the  biggest  men  of  his  time  in  the  land  where  he  was 
best  known.  Christopher  P.  Higgins  was  a  native  son 
of  Irish  soil  and  brought  with  him  to  this  land  the 
daring  and  optimism  of  his  countrymen.  Leaving 
Ireland  shortly  after  the  great  famine  of  forty-nine 
and  fifty,  he  immigrated  to  this  country  when  only  a  lad 
of  eighteen.  His  fearlessness  and  love  of  adventure 
drove  him  almost  at  once  to  the  west.  In  1855  he  came 
to  Montana  and  entered  the  army  that  he  might  join 
in  the  campaigns  against  the  Indians.  When  the  In- 
dians began  to  realize  the  strength  of  their  pale-faced 
brothers  and  the  Great  Father  at  Washington  and  re- 
turn to  their  peaceful  lives,  Mr.  Higgins  became  one  of 
the  first  white  men  to  settle  in  their  midst.  He  estab- 
lished the  first  trading  post  in  the  Bitter  Root  valley. 
It  was  situated  on  a  point  six  miles  from  what  is  now 
Missoula  and  later  was  moved  to  the  present  town 
site.  Mr.  Christopher  Higgins  was  thus  the  actual 
founder  of  the  thriving  city  of  Missoula.  He  first  laid 
out  what  is  now  known  as  the  C.  P.  Higgins  addition 
and  later,  as  the  town  grew  in  population,  he  drew 
much  of  the  chart  of  the  present  city.  Naturally,  he 
was  one  of  the  largest  landholders.  His  interests  grew 
with  those  of  the  great  northwest  until  he  became  a 
man  of  large  affairs.  He  established  the  first  banking 
house  in  his  home  city,  the  one  which  is  now  the  First 
National  Bank.  Later,  he  established  and  conducted 
in  his  own  name  the  C.  P.  Higgins  Western  Bank  of 
Missoula.  Not  that  the  banking  business  occupied  the 
entire  time  and  energy  of  Captain  Higgins.  It  was  to 
him  only  one  of  his  many  and  varied  interests.  His 
mercantile  interests  were  large  and  growing  larger  and 
he  was  admitted  to  be  one  of  the  cattle  kings  of  the 
west. 

These  heavy  responsibilities  proved  too  much  even 
for  his  Irish  courage  and  ambition.  He  died  in  1889, 
in  the  vigor  of  his  manhood.  His  fifty-five  years  of  con- 
tinual accomplishment  have  erected  to  him  a  monument 
of  deeds  that  will -make  his  name  remembered  so  long 
as  Missoula  is  a  city  and  Montana  a  freedom-loving 
state  proud  of  her  pioneers  and  their  deeds  of  prowess. 

Captain  Higgins  had  won  in  marriage  Julia  P.  Hall, 
a  native  daughter  of  the  vast  northwest,  born  at  Fort 
Hall,  Idaho.  To  them  were  born  seven  sons  and  two 
daughters,  three  sons  and  one  daughter  of  whom  are 
still  living.  Francis  G.  Higgins  former  lieutenant- 
governor   of   Montana  being  his   oldest    son. 

Ronald  Higgins  was  born  in  Missoula,  September  10, 
1884.  He  seems  to  have  received  from  the  father  whom 
he  was  scarcely  permitted  to  know  a  heritage  more 
important  than  cattle  and  lands,  an  indefatigable  energy 
and  a  desire  to  make  good  in  his  own  name. 

After  completing  the  elementary  course  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  Missoula,  he  was  sent  to  Philip  Exeter 
Academy,  of  Exeter,  New  Hampshire  where  he  grad- 
uated in  1904.  The  following  autumn  he  entered  Prince- 
ton University  where  he  remained  for  two  years  a 
student  in  the  regular  collegiate  course.  While  in 
Princeton,  he  became  a  member  of  the  Cannon  Club, 
living  in  the  chapter  house  and  enjoying  all  sides  of 
university  life. 

Having  chosen  the  law  for  his  profession,  Mr  Hig- 
gins decided  to  take  his  legal  training  in  the  State 
University  of  Michigan,  believing  the  Ann  Arbor 
law  school  to  be  equal  if  not  superior  to  schools  of  its 
kind  in  the  universities  further  east.  At  least,  it  is 
better  equipped  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  man  who  in- 
tends to  pursue  his  practice  in  the  west.  In  1909  he 
completed  his  legal  studies,  returned  to  Montana,  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  and  located  in  his  home  city,  Mis- 
soula. While  at  the  University  of  Michigan  he  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Chi  Psi  fraternity. 

Already  his  name  stands  for  more  than  that  of  a  rich 


870 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


man's  son.  He  is  active  in  the  Republican  politics  of 
the  state,  a  clever  campaigner  and  a  speaker  much  to 
be  desired.  At  the  general  election  in  1910  he  was 
given  a  seat  in  the  legislature — the  twelfth  legislative 
assembly  of  the  state  of  Montana,  being  the  only  Re- 
publican elected  from  his  county.  This  fall  (1912)  he 
was  re-elected  a  member  of  the  legislature.  In  his  polit- 
ical life  he  has  shown  himself  to  be  a  thoroughly  sane 
progressive  Republican. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  Benevolent  and  Protective 
Order  of  Elks,  being  at  the  present  time  exalted  ruler 
of  Hell  Gate  Lodge  No.  383,  and  a  young  attorney  of 
unusual  promise.  As  yet  he  has  resisted  the  claims  of 
matrimony. 

Christopher  Power  Higgins,  the  father  of  Ronald 
Higgins,  was  born  in  Ireland  on  the  sixteenth  day  of 
March,  1830.  His  parents  were  Christopher  and  Mary 
Higgins,  themselves  natives  of  the  Emerald  Isle. 

When  eighteen  years  of  age  he  came  to  the  United 
States  and  went  immediately  to  the  west.  That  he 
might  defend  his  new-found  home  against  the  enemies 
from  within  as  well  as  from  without,  he  enlisted  in 
tlic  regular  army.  After  five  years  of  active  service  in 
the  dragoons,  he  joined  Governor  Stephens,  the  famous 
Indian  fighter  of  the  northwest.  With  him  he  helped 
in  the  orjoinal  survey  of  the  Northern  Pacific.  He 
was  with  him  in  fifty-five,  when  the  treaty  was  drawn 
up  with  the  Nez  Perce  Indians.  This  was  the  treaty 
which  led  to  the  final  peace  covenant  with  the  Flat 
Heads  and  the  Pend  d'Oreilles.  The  following  season 
the  party  went  to  Fort  Benton,  where  they  negotiated 
with  the  Blackfoots.  This  done,  their  labors  among  the 
red  men  seemed  ended  and  the  little  company  disbanded 
at  Olympia,  Washington. 

In  recognition  of  his  services,  Mr.  Higgins  was  soon 
given  the  commission  of  captain  in  the  army  and 
ordered  to  carry  on  his  work  of  subduing  the  Indians. 
Until  1856,  he  remained  in  this  branch  of  the  service, 
when  he  was  assigned  to  the  quartermaster's  depart- 
ment. For  four  years  more  he  served  his  country,  two 
years  of  the  time  acting  as  government  agent  at  Walla 
Walla. 

In  i860  he  resumed  his  life  as  a  civilian  and  purchased 
Mr.  Isaac's  interest  in  the  mercantile  business  of 
Wooden  &  Isaacs,  at  Walla  Walla.  Loading  his 
share  of  the  merchandise  on  the  backs  of  seventy-five 
pack  animals,  he  went  through  Hell  Gate  canyon  and 
set  up  in  business  for  himself  in  the  little  city  of  Mis- 
soula. Here,  for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  upbuilding  of  the  town  and  here  his  son, 
Ronald,  was  born.  In  sixty-five,  he  erected  one  of  the 
first  lumlier  mills  of  the  vicinity  and  in  seventy  he 
built  the  block  that  is  still  known  as  the  "old  Higgins 
wooden  block."  In  seventy,  also,  he  engaged  in  the 
banking  business  and  later,  when  his  bank  merged  with 
the  First  National,  he  was  chosen  as  president  of  the 
corporation.  In  1889,  he  erected  the  new  Higgins 
block  and  was  arranging  to  open  a  new  bank  on  the 
ground  floor  when  he  was  called  from  his  life  of  active 
service. 

Mr.  Higgins  had  been  extensively  interested  in  the 
raising  of  cattle  and  horses  as  well  as  in  various  mining 
properties.  He  left  a  large  estate  consisting  of  property 
in  Portland  and  Seattle  as  well  as  considerable  real 
estate  in  and  about  Missoula. 

Frank  H.  Woody.  Not  the  mere  quest  for  adven- 
ture animated  those  strongest  and  best  of  the  pioneers 
who  came  to  Montana  fully  half  a  century  ago,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  these  men  who  represented  the  ele- 
ment of  citizenship  through  which  has  been  developed 
and  built  up  this  great  commonwealth,  were  prompted 
by  laudable  ambition,  by  definite  purpose  and  to  conquer 
opposing  forces.  Theirs  was  the  spirit  of  the  empire 
builder,  and  in  the  perspective  of  years  none  can  deny 


the  magnitude  and  value  of  their  achievement,  though 
to  the  younger  generation  of  the  present  day  the  story 
of  their  trials,  hardships  and  perils  reads  like  a  romance 
of  pure  fiction.  Montana  must  ever  owe  a  debt  of 
honor  and  gratitude  to  such  pioneers,  for  they  were  the 
ones  who  laid  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  on  which 
has  been  reared  the  magnificent  superstructure  of  ? 
great  and  opulent  commonwealth.  Among  the  pioneers 
of  this  type  still  living  in  Montana  is  Judge  Frank  H. 
Woody,  of  Missoula,  the  judicial  center  of  the  county 
of  the  same  name.  He  ran  the  full  gamut  of  experi- 
ences in  connection  with  life  on  the  western  frontier, 
and  few  can  ofifer  more  varied  and  interesting  rem- 
iniscences concerning  conditions  and  influences  of 
the  early  days.  With  the  exception  of  an  interim  of 
about  three  years  he  has  continuously  maintained  his 
home  in  Montana  since  1856,  and  he  has  witnessed  and 
been  an  influential  factor  in  the  development  of  the 
state  along  both  civic  and  material  lines.  More  than 
a  half-century  of  residence  in  Montana,  has  made  him 
an  authority  in  regard  to  the  details  of  transition,  mak- 
ing the  advancement  from  the  condition  of  the  wild  and 
untrammeled  frontier  to  the  present  epoch  of  most 
advanced  social  and  industrial  prosperity.  He  has  long 
been  numbered  among  the  representative  members  of 
the  bar  of  Montana,  has  served  in  various  offices  of 
public  trust,  including  that  of  district  judge  in  Missoula 
county,  and  his  life  has  been  ordered  upon  the  highest 
plane  of  integrity  and  honor,  so  that  he  has  been  ac- 
corded the  fullest  measure  of  popular  confidence  and 
esteem  in  the  state  which  has  long  been  his  home,  and 
in  which  he  is  essentially  a  representative  citizen,  as 
well  as  a  distinguished  pioneer.  Ever  loyal  to  the  best 
and  highest  interests  of  his  adopted  state,  he  has  gen- 
erously aided  in  her  struggles  and  in  her  triumphant 
progress, — a  man  to  whom  it  is  specially  gratifying  to 
accord  recognition  in  this  history  of  Montana.  He  is 
engaged  in  the  active  practice  of  his  profession  in  Mis- 
soula and  is  one  of  the  leading  members  of  the  bar 
of  this  section  of  the  state. 

Judge  Woody  was  born  in  Chatham  county,  North 
Carolina,  on  the  loth  of  December,  1833,  and  is  a  son 
of  Robert  and  Pyrene  (Hargrave)  Woody,  both  of 
whom  passed  their  entire  lives  in  that  state  and  both 
of  whom  were  representatives  of  sterling  families 
founded  in  the  South  in  the  colonial  era  of  our  national 
history.  The  Woody  family  was  of  the  staunch  old 
stock  representing  the  Society  of  Friends  in  the  early 
history  of  North  Carolina.  The  father  was  a  man  of 
ability  and  steadfast  character  and  his  active  career  was 
devoted  principally  to  agricultural  pursuits,  in  connec- 
tion with  which  he  gained  prosperity  but  not  wealth. 

On  the  old  homestead  plantation  Judge  Woody  was 
reared  to  adult  age,  and  in  the  meanwhile  his  educa- 
tional advantages  were  limited.  He  attended  school 
in  a  somewhat  irregular  and  desultory  way  until  he  had 
attained  to  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  when  he  realized 
his  most  insistent  ambition  at  the  time,  as  he  was 
enabled  to  continue  his  higher  academic  studies.  For 
one  year  he  was  a  student  in  the  New  Garden  Board- 
ing School,  an  institution  which  was  maintained  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Society  of  Friends  and  which  was 
the  nucleus  of  the  present  Guilford  College.  After 
leaving  this  institution  Judge  Woody  devoted  a  year 
to  teaching  school  in  the  eastern  part  of  his  native 
state,  and  then,  in  1853,  at  the  age  of  nineteen  years, 
he  went  to  Indiana,  in  which  state  he  taught  one  year 
in  the  public  schools  of  Parke  and  Fountain  counties, 
the  while  he  was  enabled  to  continue  his  own  studies 
in  another  Quaker  institution. 

Actuated  by  the  advice,  before  it  was  given,  of 
Horace  Greeley,  to  "go  west  and  grow  up  with  the 
country,"  in  1855  Judge  Woody  made  his  way  to  Kan- 
sas, where  he  joined  a  freighting  train  of  wagons  that 
was  starting  on  the  long  and  perilous  journey  across 
the  plains  to  Salt  Lake  City.     At  Fort  Laramie,  Wyom- 


-^S^^^i'^iS^' 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


871 


ing,  Judge  Woody  left  this  train  and  joined  a  party 
of  immigrants  en  route  to  Washington  territory.  He 
proceeded  as  far  as  the  Sweetwater  river,  where  he 
was  taken  ill  and  compelled  to  remain  a  few  days. 
He  then  fell  in  with  a  party  of  Mormons,  whom  he 
accompanied  to  Salt  Lake  City,  where  he  arrived  on 
the  15th  of  August,  1855.  Although  ill  and  almost 
destitute,  his  proud  spirit  and  resolute  purpose  were 
unshaken,  and  after  a  period  of  one  year's  residence  in 
Utah,  he  joined  a  party  that  was  setting  forth  for  the 
Flathead  country,  to  trade  with  the  Indians.  About 
the  middle  of  October,  1856,  he  arrived  at  Hellgate 
river,  near  the  present  site  of  the  city  of  Alissoula, 
Montana,  and  he  remained  in  the  Bitter  Root  and 
Missoula  valleys  until  the  early  part  of  November, 
1857,  when  he  started  on  a  venturesome  trip  to  Fort 
Walla  Walla,  Washington,  near  the  site  of  the  present 
city  of  Walla  Walla.  There  he  remained  until  the 
summer  of  i860,  when  he  returned  to  Montana,  where 
he  has  maintained  his  home  during  the  long  interven- 
ing years.  Concerning  this  memorable  journey  Judge 
Woody  has  written  a  most  graphic  and  interesting 
account,  the  same  having  been  published  in  the  Mis- 
soulian  of  Sunday,  December  15,  1912.  Within  the 
compass  of  a  review  of  this  order  it  is  of  course  im- 
possible to  reproduce  or  even  canvass  in  detail  the 
record  given,  but  a  few  quotations  may  be  given,  as 
indicative  of  the  conditions  of  the  time: 

"In  the  fall  of  the  year  1857  I  found  myself  in  the 
Flathead  Indian  country,  then  in  the  Territory  of  Wash- 
ington, where  I  had  drifted  with  some  Mormon  Indian 
traders  in  October,  1856.  At  that  time  there  were  in 
that  country  no  white  people  except  a  few  traders,  a 
small  Catholic  mission,  and  a  small  Indian  agency, 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Jocko  river,  this  being  occupied 
by  a  white  man  named  Henry  G.  Miller  and  his  wife, 
Minnie  Miller,  who  was  the  first  white  woman  ever 
in  the  present  state  of  Montana,  and  the  only  one  then 
in  that  country.  During  the  intervening  time  I  had 
led  somewhat  of  a  vagabond  life,  doing  a  little  work 
for  one  or  two  of  the  Indian  traders,  and  hunting,  fish- 
ing and  trapping  with  the  Indians  and  half-breeds.  Late 
in  the  fall  of  1857  I  became  tired  of  my  isolation  from 
the  white  settlements  and  became  quite  anxious  to  mix 
again  with  people  of  my  own  race  and  color ;  but  how 
to  do  so  was  a  serious  question.  The  nearest  place 
inhabited  by  white  people  was  Fort  Walla  Walla,  in 
the  Walla  Walla  valley,  about  five  hundred  miles  west 
of  the  place  where  I  was  then  living,  and  the  country 
intervening  was  inhabited  by  different  tribes  of  Indians, 
many  of  them  being  anything  but  friendly  to  the  whites, 
and  some  of  them  being  in  a  state  of  actual  hostility.* 

"In  the  early  fall  of  1857  two  men  who  had  come 
into  the  Flathead  country  and  who  had  been  at  Fort 
Walla  Walla,  gave  me  a  glowing  account  of  the  country, 
and  this  made  me  more  anxious  to  go  there,  but  how 
to  reach  this  land  of  promise  was  difficult  to  determine. 
About  the  first  of  November  I  had  occasion  to  visit 
the  Catholic  mission  at  St.  Ignatius,  some  thirty-eight 
miles  north  of  the  place  where  I  was  then  stopping, 
and  while  there  I  met  a  lay  brother  of  the  Coeur 
d'Alene  mission.  He  was  a  good-natured  old  Irish- 
man, named  McGeen,  and  he  told  me  that  he  was  going 
to  start  from  St.  Ignatius  on  a  certain  day  within  the 
next  week,  and  would  take  a  short  trail  to  the  mouth 
of  the  St.  Regis  de  Borgia  river,  where  it  joined  the 
Bitterroot  or  Alissoula  river,  and  that  if  I  wanted  to 
go  to  Fort  Walla  Walla  and  would  meet  him  on  the 
day  named,  I  could  travel  with  him  and  his  half-breeds 
to  the  Coeur  d'Alene  mission,  this  being  on  my  direct 
route  to  Fort  Walla  Walla. 

"When  the  time  came  to  make  the  start  it  did  not 
take  a  great  while  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements. 
I  had  two  riding  horses.    On  one  of  them  I  put  a  pack- 

*From  this  noint,  nn  tliR  narrative  of  Judge  Woody  will  be  abridged, 
irith   muior   paraphrase. 


saddle,  placed  my  small  belongings,  consisting  of  ,a 
single  pair  of  blankets,  a  small  quantity  of  bread  and 
dried  buffalo  meat,  a  small  flour  sack  containing  two 
extra  shirts,  a  few  old  letters  and  keepsakes  from  my 
distant  home,  a  copy  of  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  and  a 
few  et  ceteras  with  which  to  pay  Indians  for  ferriage, 
etc.  Upon  arriving  at  the  place  where  I  was  to  meet 
Brother  AlcGeen  it  became  apparent  that  some  mistake 
had  been  made  as  to  the  time  of  our  starting,  and  that 
he  had  started  one  day  earlier  than  he  had  intended, 
or  I  one  day  too  late,  for  we  failed  to  meet  at  the  desig- 
nated point.  I  could  see  the  remains  of  his  camp  fire  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  but  not  a  man  or  horse 
was  in  sight." 

The  foregoing  account  shows  the  preparations  made 
by  Judge  Woody  for  his  hazardous  trip,  and,  after  due 
deliberation,  he  made  the  dangerous  ford  of  the  Mis- 
soula river  and  on  the  following  day  overtook  the  Mc- 
Geen party,  with  which  he  proceeded  until  they  reached 
the  Coeur  d'Alene  mission,  where  the  future  jurist  was 
received  with  utmost  hospitality,  and  where  he  remained 
a  few  days  for  rest  and  for  recruiting  himself  for  the 
remainder  and  most  dangerous  part  of  his  journey. 
He  employed  a  Coeur  d'Alene  Indian  as  guide,  giving 
to  him  one  of  his  horses  in  recompense  for  service  thus 
to  be  rendered.  Upon  arriving  at  the  foot  of  Coeur 
d'Alene  lake  this  guide  declined  to  go  farther,  but 
procured  another  of  the  tribe  to  continue  the  journey. 
Under  the  new  guidance  Judge  Woody  proceeded  down 
the  Spokane  river  two  or  three  miles  and  then  forded 
the  stream.  They  camped  the  first  night  with  a  party 
of  Coeur  d'Alene  Indians  and  the  second  night  the 
Indian  guide  deserted,  while  his  companion  was  sleep- 
ing. Through  a  wild  and  dangerous  country,  of  which 
he  had  no  definite  knowledge,  Judge  Woody  made  his 
way  alone  and  finally  reached  the  Snake  river.  He 
finally  reached  a  camp  of  Nez  Perces  Indians  and  en- 
deavored to  prevail  upon  them  to  ferry  him  across  the 
turbulent  river.  This  they  refused  to  do,  and  a  serious 
dilemma  now  confronted  the  weary  traveler,  h'rom 
this  point  is  given,  with  but  slight  change,  the  account 
as  written  by  Judge  Woody  himself. 

"I  soon  made  up  my  mind  to  take  a  desperate  chance 
and  attempt  to  cross  the  river.  I  noticed  that  there 
wa.s  considerable  driftwood  on  the  banks  of  the  river, 
and  at  that  point  there  was  very  little  current  in  the 
stream.  As  I  had  two  hair  ropes  with  me  I  determined 
to  get  two  large  sticks  of  driftwood  and  last  them 
together  so  as  to  make  a  raft,  turn  my  horse  loose 
and  make  him  swim,  and  attempt  to  cross  on  my  raft, — 
a  decidedlv  dangerous  and  desperate  undertaking. 
While  looking  for  a  good  place  to  make  the  attempt, 
I  came  on  two  Indian  boys  with  a  large  canoe,  gather- 
ing driftwood  on  the  banks  of  the  stream.  From  the 
fact  that  their  hair  was  cut  short  I  knew  them  to  be 
slaves,  as  this  was  a  distinguishing  mark,  and  I  rode 
to  them  and  asked  them  to  put  me  over  the  river, 
for  which  service  I  offered  them  some  Indian  goods 
which  I  had  brought  with  me,  to  trade  for  ferriage  and 
provisions.  I  showed  them  the  goods  and  offered  them 
all  I  had  if  they  would  put  me  over.  At  first  they 
absolutely  refused,  but  after  consultation  between  them- 
selves they  responded  finally  to  the  lure  and  made  signs 
that  they  would  take  me  across.  They  took  my  saddle 
and  little  pack  off  of  my  horse  and  put  thenr  in  the 
canoe,  then  told  me  to  enter  the  boat,  after  which  we 
started  across,  leading  my  horse,  which  swam  behind 
the  canoe.  In  a  few  minutes  we  were  over,  and  a  hap- 
pier tenderfoot  you  never  saw.  I  saddled  up  and 
started  without  any  trail,  and  when  I  climbed  to  the 
top  of  the  hill  I  looked  down  the  river  and  saw  an 
Indian  camp  about  three  or  four  miles  below  the  point 
where    I    had    crossed. 

"I  traveled  all  that  day  in  the  direction,  as  I  sup- 
posed, of  Fort  Walla  Walla,  and  over  a  high,  grass- 
covered  country,  devoid  of  trees,  streams  or  trails ;  and 


872 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


at  night  I  camped  at  a  spring  that  I  found  in  the  hills. 
The  next  morning  the  country  was  covered  with  a  very 
heavy  fog,  which  continued  nearly  all  the  day.  After 
travehng  some  distance  I  fell  into  a  large  Indian  trail, 
and  later  in  the  day  I  saw,  through  the  fog,  the  tops 
of  trees,  afer  which  I  soon  came  to  a  stream  of  water. 
This  I  have  since  learned  was  the  Touchet  river.  Here 
I  stopped  and  let  my  horse  rest  and  feed,  the  while 
I  ate  the  rest  of  my  provisions.  I  then  resumed  my 
journey,  still  following  the  Indian  trail,  and  finally  I 
noticed  a  place  where  someone  had  been  cutting  grass 
and,  going  a  little  further,  I  discerned  wagon  tracks, 
so  that  I  knew  I  was  near  the  promised  land,— and 
a  happier  mortal  never  lived.  Upon  discovering  some- 
what later,  two  soldiers  herding  dragoon  horses  I  felt 
that  my  troubles  were  over,  as  well  as  my  fears  for  my 
personal  safety.  I  was  informed  by  these  soldiers  that 
the  fort  was  about  two  miles  distant.  I  rode  on  and 
soon  came  in  sight  of  the  dragoon  encampment.  As  I 
crossed  Mill  creek,  just  above  the  sutler's  store,  I 
met  Col.  William  Craig,  Henry  G.  Miller  and  William 
Scott.  I  presented  to  Colonel  Craig  a  letter  of  mtro- 
duction  that  had  been  given  to  me  by  Henri  M.  Chase, 
and  he  directed  me  to  his  house,  about  one  mile  distant, 
telling  me  to  go  there  and  stop  and  that  he  would 
soon  be  home.  I  went  to  the  house,  turned  out  my 
horse  and  prepared  to  take  a  rest,  as  I  was  nearly  tired 
out,  and  that  night  I  had  the  first  square  meal  for  many 
days,  with  the  result  that  I  did  full  justice  to  the  same. 
This  ended  one  of  the  most  venturesome  and  dangerous 
journeys  ever  taken  by  a  young  tenderfoot." 

As  already  noted.  Judge  Woody  returned  to  Mon- 
tana in  i860,  and  during  the  first  decade  of  his  residence 
in  the  territory  he  worked  at  such  employment  as  could 
be  obtained.  He  was  identified  with  freighting,  mining, 
buying  and  selling  merchandise,  etc.,  and  his  ability  and 
energy  soon  gained  such  objective  recognition  that  he 
was  drawn  into  politics.  In  1866  a  vacancy  occurred 
in  the  office  of  the  clerk  and  recorder  of  Missoula 
county  and  he  was  appointed  to  serve  the  unexpired 
term.  At  the  succeeding  election  he  was  formally  elected 
to  this  dual  office,  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote,  and 
thereafter  he  served  almost  continuously  until  1880, 
when  he  positively  refused  to  continue  longer  in  office. 
During  his  tenure  of  the  position  of  county  clerk  and 
recorder,  that  office  was  combined  with  that  of  pro- 
bate judge,  and  Judge  Woody  was  thus  virtually  the 
incumbent  of  two  offices  at  the  same  time,  besides  which 
he  was  for  eight  years  deputy  clerk  of  the  Second 
judicial   district   court  of   Missoula   county. 

His  tenure  of  the  official  positions  noted  brought 
Judge  Woody  closely  in  touch  with  legal  affairs  and 
court  procedures,  and  he  became,  through  such  experi- 
ence and  well  directed  study,  so  well  informed  in  the 
minutiae  of  the  science  of  jurisprudence,  that  in  1877 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  the  territory,  upon  ex- 
amination before  the  supreme  court.  Bringing  to  his 
profession  an  earnest  zeal,  a  well  trained  mind  and  inde- 
fatigable industry,  his  success  was  assured  from  the 
start,  and  he  rapidly  forged  his  way  to  the  front,  with 
the  result  that  he  gained  prestige  as  one  of  the  able 
and  representative  members  of  the  bar  of  the  great 
Northwest. 

In  1869  Judge  Woody  was  chosen  to  represent  Mis- 
soula and  Deer  Lodge  counties  in  the  territorial  legis- 
lature, but  as  doubt  was  expressed  as  to  the  legality 
of  the  ensuing  session  of  the  legislature,  he  did  not 
attend  the  same.  In  1892  he  was  the  Democratic 
nominee  for  the  office  of  district  judge  of  the  fourth 
judicial  district,  and  was  elected  by  a  gratifying  plu- 
rality. In  1896  he  was  re-elected  to  the  same  office,  of 
which  he  thus  continued  the  incumbent  for  eight  years. 
While  serving  on  the  bench  he  made  an  admirable 
record,  with  clear  apprehension  of  the  legal  principles 
involved  in  the  causes  presented  for  his  adjudication, 
the  while  he  labored  with  a  deep  sense  of  stewardship 


to  conserve  equity  and  justice,  so  that  few  of  his  de- 
cisions met  with  reversal  by  courts  of  higher  juris- 
diction. Of  more  recent  years  Judge  Woody  has  devoted 
his  time  and  attention  to  the  general  practice  of  law, 
and  he  not  only  controls  a  substantial  and  representa- 
tive practice  but  is  also  known  to  be  as  active,  alert 
and  enthusiastic  as  his  younger  confreres  at  the  bar. 
Genial,  considerate  and  sympathetic,  he  has  a  wide 
circle  of  friends  in  Montana,  and  he  is  honored  alike 
for  his  sterling  character,  and  his  worthy  achievement. 

In  the  year  1871  was  solemnized  the  marriage,  at 
Missoula,  of  Judge  Woody  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Country- 
man, who  was  born  in  California,  and  who  is  a  daugh- 
ter of  Horace  and  Elizabeth  Countryman,  her  parents 
having  been  residents  of  Montana  at  the  time  of  their 
death.  Judge  and  Mrs.  Woody  have  three  children, 
Frank,  Alice  M.  and  Flora  P.  The  only  son  is  now 
numbered  among  the  representative  practitioners  of  law 
in  the  city  of  Missoula,  and  is  a  member  of  the  law  firm 
of  Woody  &  Woody  of  Missoula,  said  firm  consisting 
of  father  and  son. 

Of  the  three  children,  Frank,  the  son,  is  married 
and  resides  in  Missoula.  The  daughter  Alice  M.  is  un- 
married and  resides  with  her  father  and  mother  in 
Missoula.  The  youngest  daughter,  Flora  P.,  was  mar- 
ried on  December  10,  1909,  to  Lieut.  Davis  C.  Ander- 
son, of  the  Sixth  United  States  Infantry.  A  few  days 
after  the  wedding,  the  Sixth  Infantry  Regiment  was 
ordered  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  remained  in  the 
islands  until  the  summer  of  1912,  when  they  returned 
to  the  United  States.  During  their  term  in  the  islands. 
Lieutenant  Anderson  was  promoted  to  a  captaincy  and 
assigned  to  the  Ninth  Infantry,  and  is  now  stationed 
at    Fort   Thomas,    Ky.,    opposite    Cincinnati. 

Fred  E.  Albrecht.  In  Mr.  Albrecht  Montana  has 
anotlier  of  the  sons  of  her  pioneers  who  is  making  a 
name  and  a  place  for  himself  in  the  commercial  world. 
He  is  the  son  of  Charles  Albrecht,  a  native  of  Ger- 
many, and  of  Emma  Boehler  Albrecht,  of  Davenport, 
Iowa.  Her  father  came  to  America  from  Germany  and 
founded  the  American  branch  of  the  family  in  the  days 
when  Iowa  was  a  sparsely  settled  region.  Charles 
Albrecht  came  to  Montana  in  the  '60s  and  set  up  in 
business  in  Helena.  He  was  by  trade  a  boot  and  shoe 
maker,  and  he  was  one  of  the  earliest  merchants  in 
that  line  in  the  city.  When  the  call  for  soldiers  came, 
from  President  Lincoln  he  responded  to  the  need  of 
his  adopted  country  and  went  to  the  front  as  a  private. 
He  came  out  of  the  service  a  lieutenant,  and  resumed 
his  business  as  a  civilian.  After  coming  to  Montana 
he  made  some  investments  in  different  mining  projects, 
but  these  never  yielded  him  any  considerable  returns. 
In  his  shoe  business,  however,  he  was  successful,  and 
he  continued  to  carry  on  his  establishment  to  the  time 
of  his  death.  Mr.  Albrecht  was  a  member  of  the  An- 
cient Order  of  United  Workmen,  and  he  also  main- 
tained his  connection  with  the  Civil  War  Veterans, 
being  a  member  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 
His  death  occurred  at  Helena  in  1889,  on  the  twelfth 
of  November.  His  wife  and  two  sons  survive  him, 
Charles  Albrecht  and  Fred,  who  make  their  home  with 
their  mother  at  409  Dearborn  avenue. 

Fred  Albrecht  was  just  eight  years  of  age  at  the 
time  of  his  father's  death,  as  he  was  born  on  Novem- 
ber 7.  1881,  in  the  city  of  Helena.  He  attended  the 
schools  of  the  city  both  in  the  grades  and  the  high 
school  until  he  was  fifteen.  When  he  went  to  work  it 
was  for  the  R.  G.  Dun  Mercantile  Agency,  with  whom 
he  was  associated  for  three  and  a  half  years.  Mr. 
Albrecht  gave  up  his  position  with  the  Agency  to  enter 
the  mercantile  field,  and  for  the  next  ten  years  was 
identified  with  various  enterprises  in  that  line.  On 
March  17,  1910,  he  again  entered  the  employ  of  the 
Dun  Agency  in  the  capacity  of  traveling  reporter.  Less 
than  two  years  later,  on  December  12,   1912,  the  com- 


nrmw^  MulSvI — - 


In  His  Seventy-Eighth  Year. 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


873 


pany  tendered  him  the  position  of  manager  of  the 
Helena  branch  of  their  organization,  and  he  is  now 
filling  this  office.  There  are  but  two  branches  in  the 
state,  so  that  the  work  of  this  office  is  heavy  and  im- 
portant. Its  responsibilities  are  such  as  Air.  Albrecht 
is  well  adapted  to  discharge,  as  he  has  in  addition 
to  his  executive  ability  and  capacity  for  detail  a  prac- 
tical acquaintance  with  conditions  and  experience  in 
operations  in  the  mercantile  business. 

Mr.  Albrecht  is  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  church, 
to  which  his  brother  belongs  as  well.  He  holds  mem- 
bership in  the  Helena  Commercial  Club  and  in  the  social 
organizations  is  one  of  the  Helena  Lambs'  Club. 
Fraternally  he  is  connected  with  the  Elks.  He  is  a 
Republican,  but  onlv  as  an  individual,  not  participat- 
ing in  the  activities  of  the  local  organization.  The 
leisure  which  he  does  not  spend  in  the  open  is  apt  to 
be  given  to  reading,  as  he  is  fond  of  literature  and  freely 
indulges  his  taste  for  books. 

Granville  Stuart.  Although  virtually  a  resident  of 
what  is  now  Montana  since  1857,  Granville  Stuart 
claims  only  a  prospector's  interest  in  the  state  previous 
to  i860.  Just  when  his  actual  citizenship  begun  is  a 
matter  of  little  moment.  The  thing  of  vast  importance 
to  the  state  of  Montana  is  that  he  did  actually  become 
a  citizen,  and  as  such  has  given  to  his  adopted  state 
the  best  of  all  he  possessed.  Ambition,  courage,  per- 
severance, brilliance,  and  every  other  admirable  trait 
so  prominent  in  him, — all  have  gone  into  the  melting 
pot  of  the  future  of  a  great  commonwealth,  and  the 
benefits  that  have  accrued  to  that  state  as  a  direct  re- 
sult of  his  life  and  labor  thus  far  can  never  be  rightly 
estimated. 

Granville  Stuart  was  born  in  Clarksburg,  Virginia, 
now  West  Virginia,  on  August  27,  1834,  and  is  the 
son  of  Robert  and  Nancy  (Currence)  Stuart.  The 
family  is  of  Scottish  origin,  coming  from  Scotland  in 
the  early  history  of  the  Atlantic  states  and  being  iden- 
tified with  the  development  of  Virginia  until  1837,  at 
which  time  Robert  Stuart  removed  to  Illinois.  In  1838 
we  find  the  family  settled  in  Muscatine  county,  Iowa, 
and  in  that  state  Granville  Stuart  received  his  early 
education,  attending  school  diligently  until  1848.  Sub- 
sequently he  assisted  on  the  homestead  farm  and  in 
the  Heath  store  at  West  Liberty  village.  In  1849  Robert 
Stuart  visited  California  remaining  there  until  the  win- 
ter of  1851,  when  he  returned  to  his  Iowa  home.  In 
May,  1852,  he  set  out  on  his  second  trip  overland  to 
California,  accompanied  by  his  two  sons,  James  and 
Granville.  The  younger  Stuarts  remained  in  Califor- 
nia until  1857,  when  they  came  to  Montana,  then  known 
as  Washington  Territory,  and  settled  in  Deer  Lodge 
valley,  about  three  miles  north  of  the  present  village 
of  Pioneer  at  the  mouth  of  Gold  creek.  In  company  with 
his  brother,  James  Stuart,  and  Rezin  Anderson,  Thomas 
Adams,  Fred  H.  Burr  and  John  W.  Powell,  Granville 
Stuart  did  the  first  prospecting  and  mming  for  gold 
in  Montana  on  Gold  creek,  near  Pioneer,  between  1858 
and  1862,  and  it  was  their  operations  in  that  period 
which  caused  the  veritable  stampede  which  settled  this 
portion  of  the  country.  In  1867  James  Stuart  visited 
his  Iowa  home,  returning  to  Deer  Lodge  in  the  same 
■  year,  where  he  remained  until  1870.  Then  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  post  of  physician  at  the  Fort  Peck  agency, 
holding  that  position  until  his  death,  which  came  as  a 
result  of  cancer,  on  September  30,  1873.  His  body  was 
removed  to  Deer  Lodge  where  interment  took  place. 
In  1863  Granville  Stuart  removed  to  Alder  Gulch  just 
following  its  discovery,  and  there  he  with  his  brother 
James,  since  deceased,  entered  the  mercantile  business. 
They  continued  in  business  until  September  of  1865, 
when  they  sold  the  business  to  Messrs.  Gorham  and 
Patten.  In  that  same  fall,  the  brothers  entered  in 
business  in  Deer  Lodge,  conducting  a  heavy  trade  from 
then    until    1873,   Granville    Stuart,   however,   being   the 


sole  proprietor  for  the  last  three  years  in  which  the 
business  was  conducted,  having  bought  the  interest  of 
his  brother  James  in  1870.  It  is  here  worthy  of  men- 
tion that  the  opening  up  and  settling  of  the  country 
between  the  years  of  1863  and  1873  was  due  principally 
to  the  activities  of  Granville  Stuart  and  his  party  of 
prospectors,  and  to  the  letters  which  he  wrote  to  Thomas 
Stuart  at  Black  Hawk,  Colorado,  but  now  of  Deer 
Lodge,  setting  forth  the  wonders  of  the  then  wholly 
undeveloped  country,  but  which  his  prophetic  mind 
recognize  for  what  it  later  proved  to  be, — the  Treasure 
state  of  the  Union. 

In  1873  Mr.  Stuart  gave  over  his  mercantile  interests 
wholly  because  of  the  state  of  his  health,  and  engaged 
in  the  more  primitive  labor  of  mining,  principally  as  a 
means  to   recover  his   former  health  and  strength.     In 
1876,   after  three  years  of  roughing  it,  he  removed  to 
Helena    where   he   became   a    stockholder   in   the    First 
National    Bank,    taking  the    position   of   bookkeeper    in 
that  institution,  one  of  the  pioneer  banking  houses  of 
that    section.     The   confining   nature   of   the    work    de- 
pleted   his    strength    to   such    an    alarming    extent    that 
after  three  years  he  gave  up  his  position  and  engaged  in 
the  cattle  business,  being  associated  with  S.  T.  Hauser 
of  the   First  National  Bank  and  A.  J.  Davis,  the  mil- 
lionaire miner  of  Butte.    Since  that  time  Mr.  Stuart  was 
controller  and  manager  of  that  extensive  business,  until 
1888,  which  has  grown  apace  since  its  inception.     The 
business  was  launched  with  a  capital  stock  of  $150,000, 
doing   a   business  of  $40,000  per   annum,   and   in  July, 
1883,    the    value    of    the    investment    had    increased    to 
$400,000,   as    evidenced   at   that   time  by   the   sale   of   a 
two-thirds    interest   in   the   property   to    Conrad    Kohrs 
for   $266,667,   which    represented   the    share   of    Messrs. 
Davis  and  Hauser.     In   spite  of  his  close  attention  to 
business,   necessitated  by   the   demands  of   such   an   in- 
dustry, Mr.  Stuart  has  been  able  to  give  some  time  to 
matters    pertaining   to    governmental    affairs.      He   was 
a    member   of    the    territorial    council    in    1872,    of    the 
house  in  1875  and  1879,  also  the  extra  sessions  of  that 
year  in  July,   and  he   was   president   of  the   council   in 
1883,  being  elected  on  the  Democratic  ticket,  of  which 
party  he  has  always  been  an  earnest  adherent.     At  the 
present  time  he  is  librarian  of  the  Butte  Public  Library. 
Perhaps    the   greatest   work    Mr.    Stuart    did    for    his 
adopted  state  was  in  his  early  life  in  these  parts,  when 
he  wrote   the   book,   "Montana  As  It   Is;"   a   splendid 
work  dealing  with   the  geographic  and  climatic   condi- 
tions of  the  territory  now  known  as  Montana.     Of  Mr. 
Stuart  and  his  book,  the  Butte  Miner  of  November  19, 
1911,  has  to  say  in  part:    "Though  Montana  numbers 
her  boosters  by  the  thousands  and  hundreds   of  thou- 
sands, the  daddy  of  them  all  is  City  Librarian  Granville 
Stuart,  who  is  the  author  of  the  first  book  ever  written 
on  the  resources  and  wonderful  possibilities  of  what  is 
now  the  Treasure  state.     It  was  penned  nearly  half  a 
century  ago,  and  woven  around  the  book  is  a  story  of 
coincidences    which    found    its    equal    but    recently.      It 
is  a  tale  illustrative  of  just  what  a  little  world  this  is 
and  of  the  freakish  pranks  fate  sometimes  plays. 

"The  story  involves  one  Edwin  E.  Purple,  a  New 
Yorker,  with  whom  Mr.  Stuart  became  very  intirfiate 
in  the  'early  sixties,  when  they  made  a  census  of  the 
state  They  were  living  at  Bannack  City,  the  first 
mining  town  in  Montana,  when  the  census  idea  siezed 
them.  During  their  compilation  of  the  name  of  every 
resident  of  the  territory  they  became  fast  friends. 
This  was  in  the  spring  of  1863  and  about  one  year  later 
Mr  Stuart  commenced  his  book,  originally  intended 
for'  a  dictionary  of  the  Snake  Indian  language  and 
Chinook  jargon,  with  comprehensive  explanatory  notes, 
but  later  developed  into  a  splendid  work,  dealing  with 
the  topography,  geography,  resources  and  climate  ot 
the  territory  now  embraced  in  the  state  of  Montana. 
It  was  given  the  title  'Montana  As  It  Is.'  Fifteen 
hundred    copies    of    the    book   were    printed   by    L.    b. 


874 


HISTORY  OF  .MONTANA 


Westcott  &  Company,  printers,  79  John  street.  New 
York  City,  in  1865.  They  cost  the  author  $1500.00. 
Before  delivery  was  made  the  pubhshing  house  burned 
down  and  only  400  copies  were  saved.  Later  all  of 
these  were  taken  by  Hon.  James  Tufts,  ex-territorial 
governor,  who  expressed  a  desire  to  superintend  their 
distribution  with  a  view  to  encouraging  emigration 
to  this  state.  The  ex-governor  sent  Stuart  one  hun- 
dred copies,  addressing  them  to  Deer  Lodge,  where 
he  was  then  in  business  with  Judge  Dance.  The  books 
were  sent  from  St.  Joseph,  .\lissouri,  by  an  o.x  train 
bringing  the  equipment  for  a  quartz  mill  in  this  state. 
The  first  winter  the  train  wintered  at  Laramie,  Wyo- 
ming, proceeding  on  in  the  spring,  and  arriving  at 
Deer  Lodge  before  the  following  winter,  about  two 
years  after  the  books  were  sent  from  New  York. 
During  the  winter  at  Laramie  snow  had  blown  in  on 
the  books  so  that  when  they  arrived  at  Deer  Lodge 
they  were  rotten  and  in  such  shape  that  for  the  greater 
part  they  were  worthless.  Such  as  could  be.  saved 
were  distributed  among  the  author's  friends.  As  to 
what  disposition  was  ever  made  of  the  other  three 
hundred  copies  remaining,  Mr.  Stuart  has  never 
learned-  A  few  of  them,  however,  must  have  been 
sold,  for  a  few  years  later  one  of  them  was  purchased 
by  the  author  for  $2.50  from  an  eastern  book  dealer. 
This  copy  has  been  in  the  Butte  library  for  several 
years. 

'Tn  1866  Purple  returned  to  the  east,  tiring  of  the 
hardships  of  the  west  apparently,  for  he  never  returned. 
On  April  3,  1870,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Stuart  asking  for 
information  as  to  where  he  could  secure  a  copy  of  his 
book,  and  on  April  27th,  Mr.  Stuart  replied.  He  said 
'Yours  of  the  ninth  instant  arrived  last  mail.  It  gave 
me  great  pleasure  to  hear  from  you  and  find  you  had 
not  forgotten  the  poor  devils  you  left  in  the  wilder- 
ness. The  book,  "Montana  As  It  Is,"  was  pub- 
lished by  C.  S.  Westcott  &  Co.,  79  John  street.  New 
York  City.  I  do  not  know  where  you  would  be  most 
likely  to  find  a  copy  in  the  city  if  they  have  none. 
Hon.  James  Tufts,  our  ex-governor,  had  charge  of 
some  three  hundred  or  four  hundred  copies  in  New 
York  City.  What  he  did  with  them  I  never  knew 
as  I  never  got  a  cent  for  them.  He  is  still  in  the  ter- 
ritory at  Virginia  City,  I  believe,  and  by  writing  to 
him  he  may  know  where  you  can  procure  a  copy. 
James  Reese,  Judge  Dance,  and  myself,  are  still  rough- 
ing it  here  and  all  send  respects.  I  shall  be  glad  to 
hear  from  you    at  any  time  and  will   respond.' 

"Mr  Stuart  never  heard  again  from  Purple,  con- 
sequently wrote  him  but  the  one  time.  Whether  or 
not  he  ever  procured  a  copy  of  the  book  he  did  not 
learn  until  more  than  forty-one  years  later.  The  sequel 
of  the  story  commences  some  time  in  1902,  when  Mr. 
Stuart,  in  looking  over  a  catalog  of  books  issued 
by  Francis  B.  Harper,  found  a  copy  of  'Montana  As 
It  Is,'  by  Granville  Stuart,  advertised  for  sale,  to- 
gether with  an  autograph  letter  from  the  author. 
Anxious  to  secure  a  copy  of  the  book  and  curious  to 
learn  to  whom  he  had  written  the  letter,  Mr.  Stuart 
forwarded  the  $10  asked  for  the  book  and  letter  with 
instructions  to  send  it  to  him.  By  return  mail  he  re- 
ceived word  that  the  book  had  been  sold  before  the 
order  arrived.  About  three  months  ago  a  catalog  of 
second  hand  books  was  received  at  the  library  from 
a  collector  of  books  in  Nashville,  Tennessee.  In  that 
Mr.  Stuart  again  found  trace  of  the  book.  It,  together 
with  an  autograph  letter  from  the  author,  was  adver- 
tised for  sale  for  $20.  He  immediately  sent  for  it, 
and  shortly  afterward  received  a  copy  of  the  book, 
beautifully  bound.  The  collector  explained  that  he 
had  taken  a  fancy  to  the  book  and  sent  it  to  England 
to  be  bound.  Between  the  cover  and  the  first  page 
of  the  book  Mr.  Stuart  found  the  autograph  letter 
from  the  author  which  had  been  advertised  by  both 
dealers.     It  was  his  letter  to   Purple  written  April  27, 


1870.  It  was  m  the  same  yellow  envelope  with  the 
quaint  little  three-cent  stamp  of  that  date  in  the  right 
hand  corner,  and  was  just  as  it  had  been  written 
bearing  a  notation  on  the  back  indicating  that  it  had' 
been  received  May  10,  1870.  Purple  had  apparently 
secured  a  copy  of  the  book  and  placed  the  letter  inside 
Later,  it  seems,  he  must  have  noticed  a  newspaper 
article  reproducing  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Stuart  to 
the  Indian  peace  commissioner  at  St.  Louis  and  pre- 
served It,  for  this  also  was  in  the  envelope  Just 
how  the  book  came  into  the  possession  of  the  New 
York  dealer  and  then  migrated  to  Nashville,  thence 
to   Lngland    and   back   can   only   be   conjectured 

"The  book  written  by  Mr.  Stuart  is  of  much  his- 
torical value,  m  that  it  is  a  perfect  pen  picture  of  the 
territory  now  embraced  in  the  state  of  Montana  In 
the  preface,  written  at  Virginia  Citv,  January  31  1865 
the  author  says:  'It  was  originally  my  intention  to 
have  given  a  general  discription  of  the  form,  climate 
resources,  etc.,  of  the  vast  region  over  which  the 
Snake  language  is  talked,  in  the  form  of  notes  to  a 
dictionary  of  that  language,  a  plan  that,  as  will  be 
seen,  I  had  partially  carried  out  when  mv  attention 
and  time  became  too  much  absorbed  by  other  affairs 
to  enable  me  to  devote  myself  to  it  as  I  had  wished 
to  do,  and  many  parts  of  it  that  I  had  traveled  over 
in  days  gone  by  have  since  that  time  been  developed  in  a 
most  unexpected  manner,  proving  incredibly  rich  in 
precious  minerals.  So  that  a  description  of  the  Snake 
country  as  then  appeared  to  me  would  bear  but  a 
shght  resemblance  to  their  present  condition,  and  be- 
sides my  description  of  portions  of  Montana,  informa- 
tion of  which  is  now  eagerly  sought  for  were  so  .scat- 
tered through  these  notes  that  they  were  in  a  very 
unsatisfactory  shape  for  those  seeking  information  in 
regard  to  it.  These  considerations  have  determined 
me  to  write  a  few  pages  describing  in  detail  that  part 
of  my  old  stamping  ground  now  known  as  Montana 
territory,  and  if  there  should  be  some  repetition  of 
things  already  described  in  the  notes,  I  hope  my  read- 
ers (if  I  should  be  so  fortunate  as  to  have  any)  will 
pardon  me,  as  they  are  necessary  to  render  this  last 
description    intelligible.' 

"The  topography  and  geography  of   Montana   is   de- 
scribed  in   detail.     Just  the   right  amount   of   narrative 
and    personal    experience    is   blended   into    this    portion 
of  the  book  to  compel  interest.     The  author  recites  an 
incident    of    his    arrival    in    Montana    and    tells    of   the 
first   discovery   of  gold   in  the   state.     'About   the   year 
1852  a  French  half  breed   from  the  Red   River   of  the 
North   named   Francois  Finlay,   who   had  been   to   Cal- 
ifornia, began  to  prospect  on  a  branch  of  the  Hellgate, 
now  known  as  Gold  creek.     He  found  small  quantities 
of  light  float  gold  in  the  surface  along  this  stream,  but 
not  in  sufficient  abundance  to  pay.     This  became  noised 
about  among  the  mountaineers,  and  when  Reese  Ander- 
son,  my   brother  James   and   I   were   delayed   by   sick- 
ness   at   the   head   of    Malad   creek   on   the   Hudspeth's 
cutoff,  as  we  were  on  our  way  from  California  to  the 
states  in  the  summer  of  1857,  we  saw   some  men  who 
had  passed  Benetsee's  creek,  as  it  was  then  called,  and 
they  said  they  had  good  prospects  there ;  as  we  had  a 
little  inclination  to  see  mountain  life,  we  concluded  to 
go  out  to   that   region  and  winter  and   look   around   a 
Httle.      We    accordingly    wintered    on    Big    Hole,    just 
above   the   Backbone,   in   company   with   Robert    Demp- 
sey,  Jake  Meeks,  and  others,  and  in  the  spring  of  1858 
we  went  over  to  Deer  Lodge  and  prospected  a  little  on 
Benetsee   creek,   but   not   having  any  grub   or   tools   to 
work   with,    we    soon    quit    in    disgust    without    having 
found    anything   that    would    pay,    or    done    enough    to 
enable   us  to   form-  a   reliable   estimate  of  the   richness 
of  this  vicinity.     We  then   went  back  to  the  emigrant 
road   and    remained   there   trading   with    the   emigrants 
more   than   two   years,    very    frequently   talking   of   the 
probability  of  there  being  good   mines  in  Deer  Lodge, 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


fc75 


until  in  the  fail  of  i860,  we  moved  out  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Stinking  Water  river,  intending  to  winter  there 
and  go  over  and  try  our  luck  prospecting  in  the  spring. 
But  the  Indians  became  insolent  and  began  to  kill  our 
cattle,  when  we  moved  over  late  in  the  fall  and  set- 
tled at  the  mouth  of  Gold  creek  and  began  to  pros- 
pect. We  succeeded  during  the  following  summer  in 
finding  prospects  which  we  considered  very  good,  upon 
which  we  began  to  make  preparations  to  take  it  out 
big,  and  wrote  to  our  brother  Thomas,  who  was  at 
Pike's  Peak,  as  Colorado  was  then  called,  to  come  out 
and  join  us,  as  we  thought  this  a  better  cottntry  than 
the  'Peak.' 

"In  outlining  the  topography  of  the  territory  Mr. 
Stuart  divided  it  into  a  series  of  basins,  five  in  num- 
ber, of  which  four  lie  on  the  east  side  of  the  Rockies 
and  one  on  the  west.  Each  basin  he  describes  in  de- 
tail; its  resources,  settlement  and  possibilities,  color- 
ing his  descriptions  by  narrating  some  personal  ex- 
periences in  that  particular  section.  That  he  viewed 
the  resources  and  possibiHties  of  Montana  with  the 
same  optimism  which  the  authors  of  booster  litera- 
ture of  the  present  day  are  wont  to  see  them,  is  indi- 
cated by  the  following  prediction :  "The  Yellowstone 
river  will  be  navigable  for  light  draught  steamers  nearly 
to  the  western  edge  of  the  basin,  or  almost  to  the 
center  of  Montana,  and  it  is  by  this  river  that  she 
will  ere  long  receive  all  her  supplies  that  come  from 
the  states  and  it  will  in  time  carry  down  our  gold 
and  silver  to  the  poor  devils  who  are  so  unfortunate 
as  to  live  in  the  Mississippi  valley  and  who  don't  own 
any  "feet"  in  any  rich  silver  leads,  and  are  ignorant 
of  the  joys  of  going  out  poor  in  the  morning  in  search 
of  "leads''  and  coming  back  in  the  evening  rich  (in 
imagination).' 

"The  dictionary  of  the  Snake  language  is  indeed 
interesting.  The  accompanying  notes  furnish  many 
sidelights  on  life  in  the  territory  at  that  time  and  con- 
cerning the  habits,  superstitions  and  manner  of  living 
of  the  Indians.  The  dictionary  of  the  Chinook  jargon 
then  and  still  in  use  in  and  among  the  tribes  of  Ore- 
gon, Washington,  British  Columbia  and  the  north 
Pacific  Coast,  also  shows  the  author's  deep  and  con- 
scientious study  of  the  language.  One  of  the  features 
of  the  book,  however,  which  has  an  immediate  appeal, 
is  the  itinerary  of  the  route  from  Leavenworth  City 
to  Great  Salt  Lake  City,  which  in  those  days  must  have 
been  invaluable  to  the  emigrant.  It  is  followed  by 
itineraries  from  Great  Salt  Lake  City  to  Sacramento, 
California  and  to  Los  Angeles,  and  from  St.  Paul  to 
Fort  Walla  Walla  in  Washington  territory,  and  many 
others.  The  itineraries  were  complete  in  every  detail. 
Distances  were  given  between  points,  locations  of 
wood,  water  and  grass,  at  that  time  necessities  to  the 
emigrant,  are  described,  and  the  conditions  of  every 
camping  spot  along  the  road  outlined  in  detail.  Most 
of  this  territory  was  wilderness,  boasting  no  habita- 
tions and  little  besides  a  vast  expanse  of  rolling  plain, 
crossed  at  intervals  by  rugged  mountain  ranges.  The 
itineraries  are  the  concluding  feature  of  the  book.'' 

The  newspaper  clipping  found  in  Purple's  letter  is 
from  the  New  York  Times  of  October  4,  1871.  It 
reproduces  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Stuart  Septepiber 
3,  1871,  to  the  Indian  peace  commissioner,  at  St.  Louis, 
in  which  he  deals  with  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  North- 
west, their  numbers,  wealth  and  power.  It  is  a  care- 
ful statement  of  their  condition  and  prospects,  and 
perusal  will  show  that  many  of  his  recommendations 
have  long  since  been  followed  by  the  government  in 
the  administration  of  its  Indian  affairs.  It  will  also 
show  that  Mr.  Stuart  made  a  careful  study  of  condi- 
tions, and  that  the  great  heart  of  the  man  was  stirred 
to  its  utmost  by  his  deep-seated  knowledge  of  the 
unhappy  conditions  peculiar  to  the  race  of  the  Red 
Men  at  that  time.  The  letter  is  of  historical  value, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  gives  such  a  comprehensive 


•  insight  into  Indian  life  forty  years  ago.  The  clipping 
follows : 

"The  following  interesting  letter  has  been  addressed 
to  Hon.  Robert  Campbell  at  St.  Louis,  and  although 
not  mtended  for  publication,  it  contains  so  clear  an 
account  of  the  present  conditions  of  the  Indian  tribes 
in  the  Rocky  mountain  region  that  he  has  permitted 
it  to  be  printed  in  the  St.  Louis  Republican,  from 
whose  columns  we  quote:  'Dear  Sir:  Knowing  that 
you  were  familiar  many  years  ago  with  the  numbers, 
wealth  and  power  of  most  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the 
Rocky  mountains,  and  having  been  in  constant  con- 
tact with  all  the  tribes  from  Colorado  to  the  British 
line,  thus  becoming  fairly  conversant  with  their  cus- 
toms, habits,  languages  and  modes  of  life,  has  caused 
me  to  take  a  very  great  interest  in  the  way  our  Indian 
affairs  are  managed,  and  led  me  to  desire  that  they 
could  be  conducted  upon  some  plan  that  would  do 
more  equal  and  exact  justice  to  both  whites  and  In- 
dians. That  the  matter  has  been  very  badly  managed 
in  the  past  is  patent  to  any  observing  mind. 

"  'At  the  beginning  of  the  tide  of  immigrants  that  left 
the  eastern  states  and  swept  across  the  continent  to 
California  and  Oregon  the  many  tribes  along  the 
routes  were  numerous  and  in  general  prosperous,  but 
the  contact  with  the  whites  produced  the  heretofore 
inevitable  decline  in  numbers  and  in  an  abasement  of 
character  which  seems  to  follow  like  a  curse  in  the 
footsteps  of  civilization,  and.  to  fall  with  a  blighting 
influence  upon  the  natives  of  the  soil.  This  is  owing, 
principally,  to  the  introduction  among  them  of  whisky 
and  other  attendant  evils  which  produce  famine,  dis- 
ease and  poverty,  dissensions  and  wars  among  them- 
selves and  with  the  whites,  and  is  leading  to  the  rapid 
extermination  of  all  the  tribes  of  the  mountains  and 
plains  of  the  great  West,  some  of  whom  have  already 
declined  so  far  as  to  have  lost  their  tribal  names,  and 
to  prevent  their  utter  extinction  have  become  incor- 
porated into  other  and  stronger  tribes. 

"  'Washakee's  band  of  Shoshones  or  Snakes,  who 
formerly  ranged  from  Bear  river  to  '  the  mouth  of 
the  Sweet  Water  river,  are  now  upon  a  reservation 
in  Wind  river  valley.  They  are  much  reduced  in  num- 
bers and  are  almost  entirely  dependent  upon  the  In- 
dian Department  for  a  living,  as  there  are  now  no 
buffalo,  and  few  elk,  deer,  or  antelope,  in  their  country. 
They  are  located  in  a  beautiful  valley  and  seem  to  be 
contented  and  desire  to  learn  to  farm,  and  if  properly 
managed  and  cared  for  will  soon  cease  their  nomadic 
life  and  quit  the  chase  for  the  more  quiet  pursuits  of 
raising  stock  and  tilling  the  soil.  They  are  not  at  war 
with  any  other  tribe  except  the  Sioux,  who  will  per- 
sist in  coming  to  their  reservations  and  steal  their 
horses  and  occasionally  kill  some  of  them.  They  com- 
plained, and  justly  so.  that  the  government  does  not 
protect  them  on  their  reservations. 

"  'The  "sheep  eater''  band  of  Snakes  and  the  Ban- 
nacks,  who  formerly  ranged  from  the  head  almost  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Snake  river,  are  now  nearly  all  on  the 
reservation  at  Lemhi,  near  the  forks  of  the  Salmon 
river  and  on  another  one  near  old  Fort  Hall  on  Snake 
river.  The  first  named  reservation  has  a  farm  in 
operation  and  these  Indians,  who  are  naturally  of  the 
most  gentle  and  tractable  dispositions  of  any  of  the 
mountain  tribes,  are  glad  to  learn  how  to  farm  and  are 
willing  to  work  when  they  see  that  they  get  the  benefit 
of  their  labor.  There  is  no  game  in  their  country 
except  a  few  mountain  sheep  and  they  do  not  leave 
the  reservation  to  hunt,  but  live  on  the  products  of  the 
farm,  their  annuities  and  salmon,  of  which  latter  there 
is  an  abundance  in  Salmon  river.  The  farm  has  only 
been  in  operation  about  a  year,  and  they  now  have 
sixty-five  acres  under  cultivation,  which  is  doing  very 
well,    considering    the    limited    means    of    the    agent. 

"  'The  Flatheads  and  Pend  d'Orielles  are  now  prac- 
tically civilized.     They  have   farms  of  their  own,  gen- 


876 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


erally  on  their  reservations  in  the  Bitter  Root  and 
Jocko  valleys.  They  are  in  comfortable  circumstances, 
have  large  herds  of  cattle  and  many  horses.  Owing 
to  the  labors  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  who  have  had 
a  few  missions  among  them  since  1843,  they  attend 
church  with  considerable  regularity  and  profess  to 
the  Catholic  religion,  and  are  usually  married  by  the 
rites  of  the  church.  These  Indians  are  quiet  and 
peaceable.  A  portion  of  them  still  make  semi-annual 
trips  to  the  Yellowstone  and  Missouri  rivers  to  hunt  buf- 
falo, but  if  they  are  properly  managed  for  a  few  years 
thej'  will  become  self-sustaining  and  will  cease  to  go 
after  buffalo,  and  will  become  permanent  residents  on 
their  farms. 

"'The  Nez  Perces  are  rapidly  becoming  civilized,  and 
stay  mostly  on  their  reservations  on  Snake  river, 
Clearwater  and  the  Columbia.  They  are  rich  in  horses 
and  cattle  and  farm  to  a  considerable  extent.  A  small 
part  of  them  still  go  with  the  Flatheads  and  Pend 
d'Orielles  to  hunt  on  the  plains  of  the  Missouri  and 
Yellowstone,  but  they  can  easily  be  induced  to  stay 
at  home.  They  are  quiet  and  well  disposed  and  quite 
intelligent.  Many  of  them  can  speak  English  and  a 
few   of  them  can   read   and   write. 

"  'The  Crow  Indians  have  an  agency  and  farm  in  the 
upper  part  of  the  Yellowstone  valley,  where  there 
are  one  hundred  and  twelve  acres  under  cultivation. 
These  Indians  take  great  interest  in  the  farm  and 
are  seemingly  very  anxious  to  learn  how  to  conduct 
farming  operations  and  desire  to  be  furnished  with 
implements,  seeds,  etc.  They  seem  to  fully  realize  the 
fact  that  although  game  is  still  abundant  in  their 
country,  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  they  will 
be  compelled  to  farm  or  starve,  and  they  fully  appre- 
ciate the  kindness  of  the  government  in  giving  them 
annuities    and   teaching  them   how   to   farm. 

"  'The  Blackfeet  and  Piegans  have  an  agency  and  farm 
on  the  Teton  river  which  has  some  eighty-six  acres 
under  cultivation,  but  as  game  of  all  kinds,  and  buf- 
falo in  particular  is  abundant  in  their  country,  they 
take  but  little  interest  in  farming  operations  as  yet, 
although  the  most  intelligent  among  them  admit  that 
they  will  have  to  farm  some  day,  although  they  think 
the  time  farther  off  than  it  really  is.  The  greatest 
difficulty  which  is  experienced  in  keeping  the  Indians 
at  their  agencies  and  on  their  reservations  is  caused 
by  unprincipled  and  influential  men  who  are  interested 
in  trading  whiskey  to  them.  They  persuade  the  In- 
dians to  leave  their  agencies  and  go  into  the  Indian 
country  out  of  reach  of  the  agents,  so  that  they  can 
trade  them  whiskey  with  impunity,  and  nothing  but 
the  unceasing  vigilance  of  Indian  Superintendent  J.  H. 
Viall  keeps  this  crying  evil  within  bounds.  He  has 
taken  energetic  measures  to  keep  this  atrocious  traffic 
suppressed,  and  if  properly  supported  will  soon  suc- 
ceed in  bringing  to  justice  or  driving  out  of  the  coun- 
try all  those  nefarious  scoundrels  who  are  engaged 
in  it.  I  look  upon  this  whiskey  trading  as  a  crime, 
but  little  short  of  actual  murder,  for  it  brings  with  it 
a  long  train  of  attendant  evils  which  are  productive 
of  a  vast  sum  of  human  misery. 

'"Owing  to  the  judicious  administration  of  Indian 
affairs  by  Superintendent  Viall,  there  is  a  more  con- 
tented feeling  among  the  Indians  of  this  territory  than 
there  has  ever  been  before.  They  seem  to  know  that 
he  is  using  all  means  within  his  power  to  promote 
their  comfort  and  welfare,  and  had  our  Indian  affairs 
been  managed  in  the  past  with  as  much  justice  and 
genuine  kindness  of  heart  as  has  been  shown  by  Super- 
intendent Viall.  we  would  have  had  fewer  bloody 
and  expensive  Indian  wars,  and  less  of  the  hostile  and 
suspicious  feeling  that  long  years  of  injustice,  false 
promises  and  bad  faith,  have  engendered  in  the  mind 
of  the  Indian  till  he  has  grown  to  look  upon  all  our 
promises  as  mere  subterfuges  to  swindle  him.  The 
total  lack  of  good  faith  shown  by  our  government  and 


the  slight  punishment  that  is  inflicted  upon  the  Indians 
when  they  break  the  many  treaties  made  with  them, 
has  caused  the  Indians  to  look  upon  all  treaties  as 
mere  farces  which  either  party  can  ignore  at  will. 
When  we  do  make  a  treaty  with  any  tribe  we  should 
observe  it  to  the  letter,  and  should  make  them  do  the 
same,  and  unless  this  is  done  no  treaty  will  be  observed 
for  any  length  of  time.  The  whites  are  almost  in- 
variably the  first  to  break  treaty  stipulations  of  any 
kmd,  and  then  they  wage  war  upon  the  poor  Indian 
for   following  their   example. 

"  'The  dictates  of  humanity  demand  that  the  Indians 
should  be  put  upon  reservations  and  fed  and  clothed 
by  the  government  until  they  become  sufficiently  ac- 
quainted in  the  arts  of  civilization  to  sustain  them- 
selves. The  onward  march  of  civilization  is  fast  ex- 
terminating the  red  men  who  once  were  owners  of  all 
this  fair  land.  They  have  suffered  great  injustice  and 
cruelty  reigns,  and  unless  they  now  have  protection 
from  the  strong  arm  of  the  government,  in  a  few  short 
years  their  place  will  know  them  no  more.  Very 
truly  yours,  Granville   Stuart.'  " 

We  have  given  this  letter  and  the  newspaper  clip- 
ping in  full,  as  they  seem  to  throw  a  deal  of  light 
upon  the  early  life  of  the  man.  That  he  was  a  thinker, 
and  a  man  in  advance  of  his  time,  is  apparent  on  every 
hand.  Certainly  his  prophecy  concerning  the  future 
of  Montana  has  been  realized  four-fold,  and  the  radical 
changes  brought  about  in  the  treatment  of  the  Indian 
question  within  the  last  three  decades  must  be  a  source 
of  much  gratification  to  Mr.  Stuart,  in  view  of  his 
sympathetic  view  of  the  situation  as  existing  at  the 
time   of   his   letter. 

Augustus  F.  Graeter.  The  Montana  pioneer  is  an  ex- 
pression synonymous  with  honor,  ability,  courage  and 
independence.  He  made  possible  the  swift,  substantial 
development  of  the  state  and  its  present  high  prestige 
and  he  has  transmitted  his  fine,  staunch  nature  to  his 
sons,  so  that  big  men,  brave  men  and  brainy  men  are 
coming  from  Montana.  Prominent  among  the  pioneer 
citizens  who  have  honored  Dillon  by  making  it  their 
home  is  Augustus  F.  Graeter,  who  has  lived  in  the  state 
since  1862  and  in  Dillon  for  the  past  decade  and  a  half. 
He  is  a  man  of  extensive  interests  in  banking,  mercan- 
tile lines,  ranching  and  real  estate.  He  is  of  German 
descent  and  evinces  in  himself  those  characteristics 
which  make  the  Teutonic  stock  one  of  our  most  admir- 
able sources  of  citizenship;  in  truth  the  superlative  term 
might  well  be  used.  His  life  record  is  without  stain 
and  he  enjoys  honor  and  universal  respect,  and  is  gen- 
erally beloved  by  those  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact 
for  a  particularly  lovable  personality  and  a  brotherly 
sympathy  which  stands  all  tests. 

By  circumstance  of  birth  Mr.  Graeter  is  a  Pennsylva- 
nian,  his  eyes  having  first  opened  to  the  light  of  day  in 
Allentown,  that  state,  on  July  29,  1834.  He  is  a  descend- 
ant of  a  long  line  of  pastoral  men,  of  whom  there  is  in 
the  family  a  record,  dating  back  to  1549.  His  father, 
August  F.  Graeter,  Sr.,  was  born  in  Wurtemberg,  Ger- 
many, March  16,  1803,  and  was  educated  at  Leipsic  and 
Stuttgardt,  coming  to  America  in  1828,  when  a  young 
man  in  quest  of  the  much  vaunted  opportunity  across 
the  sea.  He  first  settled  in  the  Keystone  state  and  later 
went  to  Ohio,  where  he  lived  until  his  demise.  He 
was  a  publisher  of  German  literature — books  and  news- 
papers— and  a  gifted  writer  and  editor.  His  death  oc- 
curred March  8,  1863,  in  Warren,  Ohio,  and  there  all 
that  is  mortal  of  him  was  interred.  The  mother,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Sarah  Hoffman,  was  born  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  in  Allentown  she  was  wooed  and  won.  The 
union  of  this  worthy  and  devoted  couple  was  blessed 
by  thebirth  of  eight  children,  the  immediate  subject  of 
this  brief  review  being  the  second  child. 

The  first  two  years  of  Augustus  F.  Graeter,  Jr.,  were 
spent  in  his  birthplace  and  then  the  family  removed  to 


.L^N.^   ^^.i 

m                                            ^ 

» 

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^^'^fl 

"  ' 

j#^  ^^^te 

-.JSbJW^^' 

^^^2^^^\~.^  '^yi-^t^cC*^-*- 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


877 


Ohio.  In  that  state  his  boyhood  and  youth  were  passed, 
and  at  the  age  of  twenty  he  went  back  to  Pennsylvania, 
locating  in  Meadville,  where  he  remained  for  about  a 
year,  clerking  in  a  store.  He  then  returned  to  Warren, 
where  he  remained  only  a  short  time  and  then  went  to 
Wisconsin,  where  he  engaged  in  the  most  strenuous 
labor,  chopping  cord  wood  and  living  the  free,  adventur- 
ous life  of  the  lumberman.  Again  he  returned  to  War- 
ren, which  was  dear  with  many  associations,  and  again 
stayed  but  a  short  time,  ere  he  went  on  to  new  scenes, 
this  time  locating  in  Florence,  Nebraska.  But  Florence 
was  soon  deserted  for  Pike's  Peak,  Colorado.  He  led  a 
roving,  care-free  life,  and  during  this  period  followed 
diverse  occupations.  While  in  Colorado  he  came  to  the 
decision  to  make  the  momentous  step  which  gave  him 
forever  to  Montana  as  a  citizen.  He  arrived  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  great  territory  in  the  month  of  August, 
1862,  and  first  located  in  Bannack.  In  the  tirst  years  he 
engaged  in  placer  mining,  and  later  in  dredging  and 
ranching.  He  ultimately  removed  to  Dillon,  where  he 
has  lived  for  fifteen  years  and  has  taken  his  place  as  one 
of  its  successful  and  able  citizens.  He  has  followed 
various  lines  of  enterprise,  such  as  banking,  merchan- 
dise, ranching  and  real  estate,  and  anything  with  which 
he  associates  himself  seems  pretty  sure  of  prosperity. 

Mr.  Graeter  is  prominent  in  Masonry,  belonging  to  all 
the  bodies  from  the  blue  lodge  to  the  Shrine.  In  the 
blue  lodge  he  has  filled  all  the  chairs  and  is  now  a  past 
master.  In  political  allegiance  he  gives  heart  and  hand 
to  the  Democratic  party  and  its  policies  and  principles. 
At  one  time  he  was  a  standard  bearer  in  the  local  ranks, 
being  of  much  influence  and  taking  an  active  part  in 
campaigns.  Recently,  however,  he  has  left  such  things 
to  younger  men.  He  has  been  frequently  solicited  to 
run  for  office,  but  has  always  refused,  even  though  with 
a  man  of  his  popularity  victory  would  have  been  almost 
inevitable.  He  consented  at  one  time  to  fill  the  office 
of  county  commissioner  and  also  served  in  the  city 
council,  but  further  than  this  he  was  adamant  in  his 
determination.  He  is,  however,  one  of  the  most  public- 
spirited  of  men,  and  ever  ready  to  give  his  best  effort 
to  any  good  cause. 

As  to  his  purely  personal  inclinations,  he  is  fond  of 
all  out-of-door  sport  in  general  and  of  baseball  and 
horseracing  in  particular.  Montana  is  one  of  his  hob- 
bies and  his  dreams  of  her  future  greatness  magnificent 
indeed. 

Mr.  Graeter  has  been  twice  married,  on  July  29,  i860, 
at  Florence,  Nebraska.  Miss  Emily  M.  Drewey,  became 
his  wife,  and  the  demise  of  this  good  woman  occurred 
in  1878.  In  1880,  in  Bannack,  Montana,  he  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Mary  J.  Taylor,  and  on  October  6,  1908, 
she  passed  away,  mourned  by  all  who  knew  her.  In  her 
memory  were  inscribed  the  following  statements  in  one 
of  the  local  oublications  at  the  time  of  her  demise: 

"Last  evening  the  entire  community  was  plunged  into 
grief  by  the  sad  intelligence  of  the  unexpected  death 
of  Mrs.  A.  F.  Graeter,  of  this  city.  A  sense  of  deep 
personal  loss  was  felt,  and  on  every  side  were  heard 
countless  expressions  of  sorrow  at  the  untimely  death 
of  this  most  gracious  woman. 

"Mrs.  Graeter's  illness  was  brief,  she  only  having 
been  ill  for  the  past  week.  Her  death  was  due  to  acute 
congestion  of  the  lungs.  A  week  ago,  shortly  after  hav- 
ing returned  from  Lewistown,  where  she  and  Mr.  Grae- 
ter went  to  attend  the  pioneers'  meeting,  she  was  taken 
down  with  an  attack  of  bowel  and  chest  trouble.  In 
spite  of  all  that  Dr.  Bond,  assisted  by  Dr.  Poindexter, 
could  do,  after  she  had  suffered  a  sinking  spell,  she 
rapidly  succumbed,  and  two  hours  later,  at  about  8  :oo 
p.  m.,  she  breathed  her  last.  All  immediate  members  of 
the  family  were  present  at  the  bedside  when  she  passed 
away. 

"Mrs.  Mary  Graeter  was  born  in  Coversdale,  New 
Brunswick,  September  26,  1849,  she  having  reached  the 
age  of  fifty-nine  years  just  a  short  while  ago.    Her  girl- 


hood days  were  spent  in  that  city.  In  1881  she  came  to 
Montana  with  Mr.  Tate  Taylor,  her  brother,  and  Mrs. 
Taylor,  who  were  then  just  married.  Fight  months 
after  her  arrival  here,  in  September,  1881,  she  was 
wedded  at  Bannack  to  Mr.  A.  F.  Graeter.  For  several 
years  thereafter  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Graeter  lived  at  Bannack, 
later  moving  to  the  Horse  Prairie  where  Mr.  Graeter 
engaged  in  ranching.  Fourteen  years  ago  they  moved 
to  Dillon  and  since  have  continuously  resided  in  this 
city. 

"As  a  true  friend  and  a  kind  neighbor  her  loss  will  be 
felt  keenly  by  all  those  who  have  known  her  since  the 
early  days  of  the  territory.  She  was  a  good  and  true 
woman,  a  kind  and  loving  wife  and  mother,  and  many 
are  the  heartfelt  tears  of  sorrow  shed  in  sympathy  with 
the  sorrowing  family  at  her  loss.  She  was  a  devoted 
member  of  the  First  Baptist  church  of  this  city  and  also 
of  the  Eastern  Star  order. 

"Because  any  community  delights  in  and  is  proud  of 
such  examples  of  gracious  womanhood,  our  little  town 
bows  its  head  in  poignant  grief  for  this  noble  woman 
who  was  taken  so  suddenly.  The  memory  of  her  life 
belongs  to  it  and  will  exhale  a  lasting  fragrance.  To 
the  desolate  husband  and  daughter  left  alone  in  the 
darkened  home  and  to  the  sorrowing  son  and  brother, 
tender  waves  of  sympathy  radiate  from  all  hearts;  may 
they  avail  a  little  to  comfort." 

Mr.  Graeter  has  four  living  children,  two  sons  and 
two  daughters.  Luther  D.,  married,  resides  at  Areata, 
California;  Blanche,  wife  of  Charles  Falk,  makes  her 
home  at  Eureka,  California;  William  Arthur,  married, 
is  cashier  of  the  State  Bank  of  Dillon;  Sadie  resides 
with  her  father  and  manages  his  household  in  efficient 
fashion.  The  subject  enjoys  the  possession  of  more 
than  his  share  of  friends  and  his  loyalty  to  them  is  un- 
impeachable. 

Samuel  Cohen  was  born  in  New  York  City,  in  1837. 
Until  the  age  of  sixteen  years  he  attended  the  schools 
of  that  city,  when  his  parents,  believing  that  he  should 
prepare  himself  for  the  business  struggle,  apprenticed 
him  to  learn  the  jeweler's  and  brush  maker's  trade.  For 
seven  years  thereafter  he  followed  this  line  of  work, 
but  never  found  it  much  to  his  liking.  In  1862  he  left 
New  York  for  Bannack,  Montana,  where  he  established 
the  first  clothing  and  men's  furnishing  house  in  the  city, 
and  a  few  years  later  he  opened  a  branch  house  in 
Virginia  City. 

Mr.  Cohen  was  energetic  and  ambitious,  with  a  keen 
sense  of  business,  and  from  the  beginning  his  venture 
proved  even  more  successful  than  he  had  dared  to  hope. 
He  knew  instinctively  what  his  patrons  of  the  west 
seemed  to  need  and  these  goods  he  furnished,  thus  sav- 
ing the  annoyance  and  delay  of  sending  to  the  east  for 
every  small  article  of  apparel.  Under  his  clever  man- 
agement his  business  so  increased  that  in  1872  he  was 
able  to  sell  out  his  western  interests  and  to  return  to 
New  York  with  an  income  amply  sufficient  for  his 
needs.  In  the  following  year  he  was  united  in  mar- 
riage with  Miss  Yetta  Poznanski.  She  was,  like  her  hus- 
band, a  native  of  New  York  City  and  was  the  daughter 
of  Morris  Poznanski,  a  merchant  of  that  city.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Cohen  were  married  on  the  22nd  of  January, 
1873,  when  Mrs.  Cohen  was  but  seventeen  years  of  age. 
For  several  years  they  lived  in  the  American  metropolis 
in  comparative  luxury,  Mr.  Cohen  being  engaged  in  no 
active  business,  but  devoting  himself  to  the  looking 
after  his  investments.  During  the  years  of  his  pros- 
perity in  the  west  he  had  purchased  with  his  earnings 
stocks  and  bonds  on  the  New  York  market,  but  a 
serious  financial  depression  caused  him  to  lose  heavily. 
About  this  time  the  great  findings  at  Leadville,  Colo- 
rado, and  the  subsequent  growth  of  that  town  was  the 
uppermost  topic  throughout  the  country,  and  Mr.  Cohen 
took  his  little  family  and  with  the  remnant  of  his  for- 
tunes started  at  once  for  Leadville,  to  retrieve,  if  pos- 


378 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


sible  his  Wall  street  losses.  Arriving  in  Lolorado,  he 
opened  a  large  mercantile  establishment,  and  with  his 
former  success  accumulated  another  fortune,  which  he 
invested  in  real  estate.  Not  anticipating  the  sudden 
slump,  his  savings  again  took  wings  and  his  second 
fortune  was  sadly  depleted.  He  returned  once  more  to 
New  York  Citv,  there  engaging  in  the  retail  merchan- 
dise business,  in  which  he  was  fairly  successful,  but 
the  western  fever  seized  him  once  more,  and  with  his 
family  he  removed  to  Helena,  Montana,  where  for 
nearly  twenty  years  Mr.  Cohen  was  engaged  m  mer- 
cantile pursuits,  with  only  fair  success.  He  then  re- 
moved to  Seattle,  Washington,  where  fie  spent  the  few 
remaining  years  of  his  life,  his  death  occurring  on  De- 
cember 8,  1908. 

Samuel  Cohen  was  an  orthodox  Jew  and  a  member 
of  the  Synagogue,  as  were  all  his  family.  He  was  an 
enthusias'tic  Mason,  and  a  member  of  Ancient  Chapter, 
No.  I,  of  New  York  City.  Politically  he  remained  a 
Jefiersonian  Democrat  until  the  last. 

Four  children  were  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cohen. 
Amy  M.  was  born  in  New  York  City,  on  August  12, 
1876;  she  is  now  the  wife  of  Joseph  Rosenthal,  and 
they  make  their  home  in  San  Francisco.  Another 
daughter,  Mabel,  was  born  in  Leadville,  and  lived  but 
two  years.  Lew  Allen  is  the  eldest  son;  Almont  M. 
was  born  in  Helena,  Montana,  on  the  30th  of  November, 
1890,  and  is  living  with  his  mother  in  Seattle,  Washing- 
ton. 

Lew  Allen  Cohen,  the  eldest  child  of  his  parents, 
was  born  during  his  father's  earliest  prosperity.  He 
was  born  in  New  York,  on  January  11,  1874,  and  during 
his  early  years  he  attended  the  schools  of  his  native 
city.  Then  came  the  ebb  of  his  father's  fortunes  and 
he  was  obliged  to  continue  his  studies  in  Helena,  after 
the  removal  of  the  family  to  the  west.  At  the  age  of 
sixteen  he  felt  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  become  self 
supporting,  and  he  accepted  a  position  as  bookkeeper 
with  the  firm  of  Sands  Brothers.  In  1893  he  was  made 
department  manager  for  the  same  concern,  then  the 
oldest  established  dry  goods  house  in  Montana.  For 
fourteen  years  Lew  Cohen  was  associated  with  this 
firm,  and  in  1907,  upon  the  reorganization  of  the  com- 
pany, he  became  president  of  the  corporation,  with  Mr. 
S.  J.  Holzman  as  secretary  and  treasurer.  This  house 
is  not  only  the  oldest,  but  by  far  the  largest  of  its 
kind  in  the  state,  employing  more  than  fifty  persons  in 
the  establishment,  and  it  is  evident  that  Mr.  Cohen  has 
inherited  much  of  his  father's  business  sagacity. 

During  the  holiday  season  of  1900,  he  won  for  his 
wife  Miss  Yetta  Feldberg,  the  daughter  of  Jacob  Feld- 
berg,  one  of  the  pioneer  families  of  the  west.  They 
have  no  children. 

Mr.  Cohen  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic  Fraternity, 
King  Solomon  Lodge,  No.  9,  of  Helena,  Montana, 
Helena  Lodge  of  Perfection,  No.  4,  Helena  Consistory, 
No.  3,  Helena  Council  of  Kadosh,  No.  3,  a'nd  the  Chap- 
ter of  Rose  Croix,  No.  3.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the 
Woodmen  of  the  World.  He  is  a  diligent  worker  in  the 
Retail  Merchant's  Association  and  the  Commercial  Club, 
and  he  is  known  for  one  of  the  enterprising  and  pro- 
gressive business  men  of  the  state,  who  has  the  best 
interests  of  his  city  and  community  at  heart. 

George  W.  Morse.  A  grand  old  pioneer  in  Montana 
and  one  who  early  served  this  commonwealth  by  dis- 
covering a  number  of  unexplored  points,  such  as  Indian 
creek  (now  Radersburgh),  Bilk  Gulch  and  Weasel 
creek,  is  Colonel  George  W.  Morse,  who  was  long  en- 
gaged in  the  cattle  and  ranching  business  in  the  vicinity 
of  Drummond  but  who  is  now  living  virtually  retired 
in  this  place,  He  is  intrinsically  loyal  and  public- 
spirited  in  connection  with  all  that  affects  the  good  of 
Montana  and  of  his  home  community.  He  enjoys  the 
distinction  of  having  been  first  presidential  elector  from 


this   state  and  he  has   attended   every  Republican   state 
convention  since  his  advent  in  Montana. 

Colonel  George  W.  Morse  was  born  at  Whitefield, 
Maine,  December  2,  1838,  and  he  is  a  son  of  Daniel 
and  Mary  A.  (Norris)  Morse,  the  former  of  whom  was 
born  in  England,  whence  he  came  to  America  as  a  young 
man,  and  the  latter  of  whom  was  a  native  of  White- 
field,  Maine.  The  father  was  a  sea-captain,  but  made 
his  home  in  the  state  of  Maine,  where  was  solemnized 
his  marriage  and  where  all  his  children  were  born. 
Mr.  Morse  passed  to  the  life  eternal  in  1866,  aged  sev- 
enty-six years,  and  she  died  in  1880,  at  the  age  of 
seventy  years.  Both  are  buried  in  Maine.  The  Colonel 
was  the  fifth  in  order  of  birth  of  the  six  children  born 
to  his  parents  and  of  that  number  three  are  living  at 
the  present  time  in  1912. 

The  early  education  of  Colonel  Morse  was  obtained 
in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  state.  He  earned 
his  first  money  as  a  boy  of  eight  years  by  dropping 
potatoes  in  the  planting  season.  His  salary  was  five 
cents  for  a  day's  work ;  he  was  paid  in  pennies  and  as 
one  of  them  was  bad  he  really  only  netted  four  cents 
for  his  first  day's  work.  As  a  youth  he  worked  in  a 
lumber  mill  for  a  salary  of  thirteen  dollars  per  month 
and  out  of  this  meager  pay  he  managed  to  save  enough 
to  start  for  the  west.  He  paid  his  fare  as  far  as  the 
Mississippi  river  and  from  that  place  worked  his  way 
on  a  boat  to  St.  Paul,  ^Minnesota,  where  he  resided  and 
worked  in  a  sawmill  for  the  next  four  years,  during 
which  time  he  helped  put  in  the  first  dam  ever  built 
across  the  Mississippi  river.  In  1856  he  went  to  Lou- 
isiana and  tiicre  was  employed  for  one  year  in  the  tim- 
ber department  of  a  railroad  company.  He  later  re- 
turned to  Minnesota  and  thence  went  to  Pikes  Peak, 
where  he  remained  until  1862,  when  he  came  to  Mon- 
tana He  has  since  been  a  resident  of  this  state  except 
for  a  short  time  spent  in  Idaho,  where  he  followed 
prosi)ecling  and  mining.  Returning  to  Helena  in  1865, 
he  prospected  for  about  one  year  in  the  vicinity  of  that 
place  and  then  joined  the  crowd  as  a  prospector  in  the 
famous  Sun  River  stampede.  It  was  at  this  time,  while 
out  on  one  of  his  prospecting  trips,  that  he  discovered 
Indian  creek.  Subsequently  he  went  to  Reynolds  City 
and  there  followed  mining  for  some  six  years,  during 
which  time  he  made  two  other  valuable  discoveries  that 
are  to  this  day  placed  to  his  credit,  namely.  Bilk  Gulch 
and  Weasel  creek.  From  this  district  he  went  to  New 
Chicago,  two  miles  from  Drummond,  and  there  pur- 
chased a  ranch,  engaging  in  fanning  and  mining  for  a 
number  of  years.  He  recently  disposed  of  part  of  his 
ranching  interests  and  came  to  Drummond,  where  he 
engaged  actively  in  the  cattle  business,  buying  and 
shipping  stock  to  various  of  the  largest  markets.  Since 
1910,  however,  he  has  lived  virtually  retired,  content- 
ing himself  with  giving  a  general  supervision  to  his 
numerous  interests  in  this  section  of  the  state.  He  is 
possessed  of  remarkable  ability  as  a  business  man  and 
although  he  has  now  reached  the  venerable  age  of 
seventy--four  years,  is  still  as  active  and  energetic  as 
many  a  man  of  half  his  years. 

Colonel  Morse  received  his  title  of  "Colonel"  while 
in  Minnesota  during  the  time  of  the  Spinet  Lake  mas- 
sacre by  the  Sioux  Indians.  Governor  Ramsey  called 
for  volunteers  to  subdue  the  Indian  insurrections  and 
eighty  young  men  responded  to  the  call.  They  orga- 
nized a  company,  and  although  these  young  volunteers 
did  not  see  any  active  fighting,  as  the  Indians  had  in 
the  meantime  disappeared,  before  disbanding  they 
elected  Mr.  Morse  colonel,  and  the  title  has  stuck  to 
him  during  the  long  intervening  years  to  the  present 
time. 

In  politics  Colonel  Morse  is  a  stalwart  Republican 
and  he  has  served  as  county  commissioner  for  a  period 
of  three  terms.  He  is  an  ardent  party  fighter  and  was 
the  first  presidential  elector  from  the  state  of  Montana. 
He  cast  the  state's  vote  for  President.     He  attends  all 


IN  HIS    Hi-xk  YEAR 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


879 


the  Republican  state  conventions  and  is  an  active  worker 
in  behalf  of  party  interests.  Colonel  Morse  attended 
the  organization  of  the  Republican  party  in  1856  in  the 
territory  of  Minnesota,  and  has  ever  since,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  1896,  supported  the  Republican  party  on  na- 
tional issues.  In  1912  he  became  allied  with  the  Na- 
tional Progressive  party,  and  served  as  a  delegate  to 
the  convention  in  Chicago  when  the  party  was  orga- 
nized and  nominated  Colonel  Roosevelt  for  the  presi- 
dency. He  is  a  Knight  Templar  Mason,  being  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Ruby  Lodge,  No.  36,  at  Drummond,  but  for 
many  years  had  been  a  member  of  the  blue  lodge  at 
Deer  Lodge,  and  a  noble  of  the  Mystic  Shrine,  affiliat- 
ing with  Algeria  Temple  at  Helena.  He  is  also  affili- 
ated with  the  Benevolent  and  Protective  Order  of  Elks 
and  is  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Montana  Pioneers, 
of  which  he  has  served  as  vice-president  several  terms. 
For  several  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  school  board 
at  New  Chicago,  and  while  he  is  not  formally  con- 
nected with  any  religious  organization  he  contributes 
liberally  to  the  support  of  all  the  churches  at  Drum- 
mond, insisting  that  they  are  all  good.  Colonel  Morse 
was  an  intimate  friend  of  the  late  Colonel  Sanders  and 
was  in  service  under  him  in  many  campaigns.  He  is 
interested  in  horse  races  and  loves  to  see  a  good  boxing 
match.  He  devotes  a  great  deal  of  his  spare  time  to 
reading,  being  particularly  well  informed  on  the  politi- 
cal situations  of  the  day. 

In  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  in  1877,  Colonel  Morse  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Mattie  J.  Milliken,  a  daugh- 
ter of  Edward  and  Serfrances  Alilliken,  formerly  of 
Maine.  Colonel  and  JMrs.  Morse  are  the  parents  of  two 
children,  both  boys :  George  A.  is  married  and  is  en- 
gaged in  the  real-estate  business  at  Drummond  and 
Aviral  P.  is  likewise  married  and  lives  in  this  place, 
where  he  is  most  successfully  engaged  in  the  general 
merchandise  business. 

Colonel  Morse  holds  distinctive  prestige  as  one  of 
the  good,  grand  and  honorable  pioneers  who  have  made 
Montana  one  of  the  finest  states  in  the  Union.  His 
entire  life  has  been  characterized  by  upright,  honorable 
principles,  and  it  also  exemplifies  the  truth  of  the  Emer- 
sonian philosophy  that  "The  way  to  win  a  friend  is  to 
he  one."  He  is  a  man  of  great  philanthropy,  but  there 
is  a  modesty  and  lack  of  all  ostentation  in  his  work  as 
a  benefactor.  In  this  day,  when  disinterested  citizen- 
ship is  all  too  rare  a  jewel,  it  is  helpful  to  reflect  upon 
a  course  of  high-minded  patriotism  such  as  that  of 
Colonel  Morse.  His  genial  kindly  manner  have  won 
him  the  high  regard  of  all  with  whom  he  has  come  in 
contact  and  he  is  sincerely  beloved  by  all  his  fellow 
citizens  at.  Drummond. 

S.XNFORD  RuFFNER.  For  more  than  half  a  century 
a  resident  of  Gallatin  county,  Montana,  during  which 
time  he  has  been  a  witness  of  the  growth  of  this  sec- 
tion of  the  country  from  the  home  of  the  red  man  and 
the  haunt  of  wild  animals  to  a  center  of  commercial, 
industrial  and  agricultural  activity,  Sanford  Ruffner, 
now  retired  and  living  in  his  home  at  305  Bozeman 
avenue.  South,  is  highly  deserving  of  a  prominent 
place  among  those  who  have  assisted  in  making  _  Mon- 
tana's history.  During  his  long  and  useful  residence 
here,  Mr.  RufYner  was  engaged  in  various  occupations, 
and  while  succeeding  in  a  financial  way,  he  also  gained 
prominence  in  public  and  social  circles,  identifying 
himself  with  all  movements  which  his  judgment  gave 
him  to  believe  were  for  the  benefit  of  his  "'community. 
He  was  born  in  Jessamine  county,  Kentucky,  February 
8,  1834,  and  is  a  son  of  Samuel  Rufifner,  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania,  who  fought  in  the  War  of  I812,  after- 
wards removed  to  Kentucky,  and  in  1849  went  to  Mis- 
souri, where  he  was  living  at  the  time  of  his  demise 
in  1869.  There  were  nine  children  in  the  family,  and 
Mr.  Rufifner  has  two  brothers  and  a  sister  now  living: 
James,  born  in  1820,  a  resident  <Ji  San  Francisco,  Cali- 


fornia ;  John  L.,  living  in  Homer.  Louisiana  and  Eliza- 
beth, the  widow  of  J.  Noland,  living  in  Athens,  Illinois. 

Sanford  RufYner  began  his  educational  training  in 
private  sclfools  in  Kentucky,  and  completed  it  in  Mis- 
souri, after  which  he  served  a  full  apprenticeship  of 
three  years  to  the  carpenter's  trade.  He  worked  at 
that  vocation  in  Independence,  Missouri,  until  i860,  in 
the  spring  of  which  year  he  started  for  Colorado  with 
an  ox-team,  stopping  the  first  season  in  California 
Gulch,  the  present  site  of  Leadville,  and  going  to 
Denver  in  1861.  He  remained  in  that  city  until  the 
fall  of  the  same  year,  when  he  returned  to  Missouri, 
but  again  in  the  next  spring  turned  his  face  toward  the 
west,  his  destination  being  Carson  City,  Nevada.  During 
this  trip,  which  was  made  by  ox-team,  Mr.  Ruffner 
experienced  all  the  hardships,  privations  and  dangers 
encountered  by  the  sturdy  pioneers.  The  wagon  train 
which  he  had  joined  was  a  large  one,  having  at  least 
one  hundred  wagons,  and  the  numerous  men  were  kept 
under  strict  military  order  by  the  leader.  Captain 
Anderson.  Not  long  after  their  start  they  were  warned 
of  the  perils  that  awaited  them  by  the  sight  of  smoking 
ruins,  slain  stock  and  massacred  emigrants,  and  these 
grisly  evidences  of  the  activity  of  the  hostile  Indians 
caused  the  party  to  exercise  the  utmost  vigilance,  in 
spite  of  which  one  white  man  lost  his  life  and  many 
of  the  emigrant  band  were  wounded  in  the  almost 
nightly  skirmishes  with  the  savages.  When  they  reached 
the  Platte  river,  the  little  party  voted  to  come  to  Mon- 
tana instead  of  Nevada,  and  took  a  route  via  the  Landis 
cut-off,  intending  to  locate  on  Salmon  river,  but,  re- 
ceiving unfavorable  reports  of  that  locality,  changed 
their  course  to  Deer  Lodge,  where  they  arrived  in 
September,  1862,  and  where  Mr.  Ruffner  remained 
for  one  month.  He  then  wintered  in  Bannack  and 
worked  at  mining,  and  at  his  trade,  until  the  fall  of 
1863.  A  short  time  prior  to  leaving  this  locality,  Mr. 
Ruffner  had  done  quite  a  large  business  in  making 
coffins  to  bury  the  men  that  had  died  and  were  hung, 
and  also  built  a  scaffold  for  Sheriff  Plummer  to  hang 
a  man  on,  the  sheriff  subsequently  meeting  his  own 
death  on  the  same  platform  not  long  thereafter.  During 
his  mining  days  in  the  lawless  camp,  Mr.  Ruffner  was 
acquainted  with  many  of  the  notorious  gentry  of  the 
time,  among  them  George  Ives,  Buck  Stinson  and 
others.  During  the  fall  of  1863  he  outfitted  and  went 
to  Salt  Lake  City  for  provisions,  and  so  successful 
was  he  in  this  line  that  he  made  several  trips,  on  the 
second  of  which,  while  on  his  return  journey,  he  en- 
countered Judge  Smith,  who  was  making  his  way  out, 
having  been  banished  from  the  country.  The  lawless 
element,  during-  the  years  of  1863,  1864  and  1865,  was 
greatly  in  evidence,  and  Mr.  Rufifner  can  recall  numer- 
ous thrilling  episodes  that  marked  the  times.  He 
states  that  it  waj  no  unusual  thing  to  be  awakened  by 
shooting  during  the  night,  and  the  first  question  in 
the  morning  would  invariably  be :  "Who  have  you  for 
breakfast?"  Mr.  Rufifner  turned  his  attention  to 
ranching  in  the  fall  of  1864,  locating  on  a  property 
on  Bozeman  creek,  about  two  and  one  half  miles  from 
Bozeman,  and  continued  thereon  until  1906.  in  the  fall 
of  which  year  he  and  his  wife  and  daughters,  Stella 
and  Leila,  went  to  Spokane,  Washington,  to  spend  the 
winter  with  their  daughter,  Mrs.  Harry  K.  Brown. 
After  remaining  there  during  the  winter,  they  all  went 
to  Long  Beach,  Washington,  and  in  the  fall  of  1907 
returned  to  Bozeman  and  lived  in  their  comfortable 
home  at  No.  318  Tracy  avenue.  In  191 1  they  moved 
to  their  new  home  at  305  Bozeman  avenue.  South,  and 
on  December  16,  1912,  went  to  California  to  spend  the 
winter. 

On  October  28,  1869,  Mr.  Ruffner  was  united  in  mar- 
riage with  Miss  Sara  J.  Switzler,  of  Salt  Lake  City, 
daughter  of  James  L.  Switzler,  a  native  of  Virginia. 
Seven  children  have  been  born  to  this  union,  namely : 
011a    M.,   the   wife   of   Harry   K.   Brown,   now    residing 


880 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


at  Berkeley,  California;  Charles  S.,  county  treasurer  of 
Gallatin  county,  who  married  Grace  Pound  and  has 
one  daughter;  Lester,  who  married  Beatrice  Schmall- 
housen ;  Stella  A.,  who  was  married  December  i6, 
1912,  to  Raymond  Baker,  a  partner  in  the  Crown  Scenic 
Studio,  Bozeman ;  Leila,  who  makes  her  home  with 
her  parents ;  a  child  who  died  in  infancy ;  and  Fred- 
erick Eugene,  who  died  at  the  age  of  eight  years. 

During  the  years  of  his  activity  as  a  rancher,  Mr. 
Ruffner  displayed  marked  ability  and  business  acumen, 
and  his  property  of  six  hundred  acres,  in  the  Gallatin 
valley,  was  a  model  of  neatness  and  prosperity.  In 
addition  to  large  crops  of  wheat,  oats,  barley  and  hay, 
he  was  successful  in  raising  valuable  cattle  and  sheep, 
his  buildings  were  of  the  most  modern  and  substantial 
construction,  and  he  was  looked  upon  as  one  of  the 
leading  ranchmen  of  his  district.  A  friend  of  educa- 
tion, morality  and  good  citizenship,  he  allied  himself 
with  every  movement  for  the  public  welfare,  and 
served  for  a  number  of  years  as  a  member  of  the 
school  board.  He  ever  took  a  keen  interest  in  both  the 
Association  of  Pioneers  of  Montana  and  the  Pioneer 
Society  of  Gallatin  County,  and  is  still  highly  valued 
in  both,  having  served  as  president  of  the  former  in 
l8g8,  and  of  the  latter  in  1910. 

Samuel  T.  Hauser.  Among  the  earliest  pioneers 
in  the  van  of  advancing  civilization  in  the  northwest 
was  Hon.  Samuel  T.  Hauser,  ex-governor  of  the  ter- 
ritory of  Montana,  one  of  the  forceful  and  energetic 
factors  that  brought  fruition  to  the  hopes  of  the  most 
sanguine  optimists  concerning  the  welfare  of  this 
young  commonwealth.  To  outline  his  career  during  the 
territorial  and  state  epochs  is  to  sketch  much  of  the 
history  of  the  country  which  he  has  seen  emerge  from 
the  ruggedness  of  a  wilderness  to  become  the  home 
communities  of  cultured,  refined  and  progressive  citi- 
zens, and  when,  in  1885,  President  Cleveland  named 
him  governor  of  the  territory,  the  appointment  called 
forth  from  the  people  of  Montana  uniform  approval 
and  endorsement. 

Samuel  T.  Hauser  was  born  in  Falmouth,  Pendle- 
ton county,  Kentucky,  on  January  10,  1833.  His  early 
education,  the  foundation  of  wider  scholastic  attain- 
ments, was  received  in  the  public  schools,  and  in  1854, 
when  he  was  twenty-one  years  old,  he  removed  to 
Missouri,  where  as  a  civil  engineer  he  was  employed 
by  different  railroad  companies.  Later  he  served'  as 
assistant  engineer  in  building  the  Missouri  Pacific  and 
Northern  Pacific  Railroads,  and  was  chief  engineer 
on  the  Lexington  branch  of  the  former,  the  division 
extending  from  Lexington  to  Sedalia,  Missouri,  and 
he  held  this  important  office  until  1862.  In  the  earlier 
half  of  that  year  he  came  up  the  Missouri  to  Fort 
Benton,  and  in  June  crossed  the  country  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Columbia  river,  where  he  prospected  for 
gold  for  a  time.  The  same  year  he  came  to  Bannack, 
then  just  opening  its  treasures  to  the  industrious 
nlacer  mmer,  and  in  the  autumn  he  trailed  down  the 
Yellowstone  over  the  Lewis  and  Clarke  course.  The 
history  of  this,  the  "Yellowstone  expedition  of  1863," 
the  story  of  its  hardships,  its  perils  and  its  romance, 
i.s  one  of  the  most  thrilling  in  the  annals  that  chronicle 
the  wmmng  of  the  west."  and  among  that  adventurous 
band  of  sturdy  pioneers,  opening  to  advancing  thou- 
sands a  new  world,  teeming  with  mineral  wealth  and 
aftordmg  perennial  and  luxurious  pasturage  for  mil- 
lions of  cattle  and  sheep,  none  was  more  indefatig- 
able, none  braver  and  none  more  sagacious  and  re- 
sourceful than  Governor  Hauser.  The  history  of  this 
civil-military  enterprise  is  preserved  in  the  journal  of 
Captam  James  Stuart  and  in  the  ably  collated  reminis- 
cences of  Governor  Hauser.  There  were  fifteen  men 
m  the  party.  On  the  night  of  Mav  12.  1863.  the  party 
was  attacked  by  Indians,  and  a  number  of  the  men 
were    seriously    wounded.      Air.     Hauser    received    a 


wound  in  the  left  breast,  the  ball  passing  through  a 
memorandum  book  in  his  shirt  pocket  and  lodging  in 
a  rib  over  his  heart,  the  presence  of  the  book  saving 
his  life.  His  intrepid  bravery  was  shown  on  more 
than  one  instance  during  this  trip,  and  of  the  expe- 
dition a  local  history  has  said  that  it  "must  certainly 
be  credited  with  discovery  of  the  Virginia  mines  and 
the  opening  of  the  Yellowstone  country.  Through  it 
came  the  information  and  most  of  the  enterprise  which 
placed  Montana  a  leader  among  the  territories  within 
a  short  time  after  the  first  American  settlements  were 
made."  This  was  but  one  of  the  many  distinguished 
services  which  Mr.  Hauser  has  rendered  Montana. 

It  was  at  once  seen  that  a  new  leader  of  men  had 
come  to  the  territory  and  his  abilities  were  speedily 
recognized.  In  1865,  in  company  with  M.  P.  Lang- 
ford,  Mr.  Hauser  organized  a  bank  at  Virginia  City 
under  the  firm  name  of  S.  T.  Hauser  &  Company. 
But  here  his  enterprise  did  not  linger.  Those  were 
days  of  action,  industry  and  push.  Soon  afterward  he 
organized  a  mining  company,  and  at  Argenta  he  built 
the  first  furnace  erected  in  the  territory.  He  con- 
tinued the  work  of  injecting  life,  strong  commercial 
life,  into  various  communities.  He  organized  in  1866 
the  First  National  Bank  of  Helena,  the  St.  Louis 
Mining  Company  at  Phillipsburg,  later  the  Hope  Min- 
ing Company,  and  here  was  erected  the  first  silver  mill 
of  the  territory.  Other  financial  institutions  which 
sprang  into  being  through  his  action  were  the  First 
National  Bank  of  Butte,  the  First  National  of  Fort 
Benton  and  the  First  National  of  Missoula.  Governor 
Hauser  then  associated  himself  with  other  enterpris- 
ing capitalists  and  built  these  railroads:  Helena  & 
Boulder  Valley,  Helena  &  Jefi'erson  County.  Drummon 
&  Phillipsburg,  Helena  &  Red  Mountain,  Helena  North- 
ern, and  Missoula  &  Bitter  Root  Vnlley.  He  also  or- 
ganized the  Helena  &  Livingston  Smelting  &  Reduc- 
tion Company.  Governor  Hauser  is  a  Democrat,  and 
in  the  councils  of  Democracy  his  influence  has  been 
one  of  potency,  while  he  has  been  an  earnest  and  able 
exponent  of  and  worker  in  the  heat  of  numerous 
campaigns.  _  In  1884  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  Dem- 
ocratic national  convention,  in  which  he  was  one  of 
the  committee  to  notify  the  nominees,  Cleveland  and 
Hendricks,  of  their  nomination.  In  July,  1885,  Presi- 
dent Cleveland  named  him  as  governor  of  the  terri- 
tory of  Montana,  and  he  was  its  first  resident  gover- 
nor. After  a  service  of  eighteen  months  he  resigned 
the  gubernatorial  office,  his  administration  being  one 
of  signal  discrimination  and  ability,  one  which  con- 
served the  best  interests  of  the  territory.  In  his  fra- 
ternal relations  Mr.  Hauser  is  identified  with  the  time- 
honored  order  _  of  Freemasons.  In  1871  Governor 
Hauser  was  united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Ellen  Far- 
rar,  _  a  daughter  of  a  distinguished  physician  of  St. 
Louis,  Missouri,  and  of  this  union  two  children  have 
been  born,  Ellen  and  Samuel  Thomas.  Jr.  The  fine 
presence  of  Governor  Hauser  and  his  manly  char- 
acter have  endeared  him  to  all  with  whom  he  has 
met  in  business  or  social  relations. 

Governor  Hauser's  long  connection  with  civil  en- 
gineering led  him  into  scenes  that  were  often  thrilling 
and  sometimes  involved  personal  peril.  We  will  give 
one  heretofore  unpublished  episode  in  his  career  that  is 
replete  with  realism.  It  occurred  a  few  months  sub- 
sequent to  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  war,  and 
the_  scene  was  in  Missouri,  where  the  Governor  was 
assisting  in*  the  construction  of  a  railroad  in  some  of 
the  "back  counties."  He  learned  that  a  man  was  to 
be  tried  for  his  life  by  a  justice  of  the  peace.  To 
Mr.  Hauser  this  proceeding  appeared  strange  and  un- 
warranted, and  with  a  friend  who  was  a  resident  of  the 
locality,  he  went  to  the  "court."  where  they  found  a 
young  man  of  not  unprepossessing  appearance  charged 
with  placing  poison  in  a  spring.  There  was  no  evidence 
whatever   to   indicate  that   poison   had   ever   been   put 


,j\ 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


881 


into  the  spfing,  but  the  court  had  evidently  been  con- 
vened to  convict  the  prisoner,  and  this  was  done 
quickly.  The  condemned  man  was  led  to  a  neighbor- 
ing grove,  a  rope  was  thrown  over  a  limb  of  a  tree 
and  he  was  asked  if  he  had  anything  to  say.  He  re- 
plied that  he  was  innocent  of  the  alleged  crime,  and 
requested  that  his  mother  might  be  informed  of  what 
he  had  said  as  he  thus  stood  in  the  shadow  of  death. 
The  pathetic  incident  and  the  wrong  of  it  aroused  the 
indignation  of  Mr.  Hauser  and  he  loudly  protested 
that  the  proceedings  were  unlawful  and  that  no  justice 
court  in  the  Union  held  jurisdiction  over  human  life. 
Instantly  a  hundred  malignant  faces  were  turned  toward 
the  intruder  on  Missouri  "justice,"  and  he  was  vigor- 
ously cursed  as  a  Yankee.  His  friend  tried  to  explain 
that  Mr.  Hauser  was  a  Kentuckian,  but  the  mob  was 
obdurate.  At  that  instant  his  friend,  a  powerful 
athlete,  suddenly  pulled  him  from  his  horse  in  time 
to  avoid  his  being  shot  by  one  of  the  guards,  and  then 
threw  him  upon  his  horse  and  started  homeward  at 
a  gallop.  The  daring  efiforts  of  Mr.  Hauser  were 
made  in  vain,  and,  as  subsequently  ascertained,  an 
innocent  man  was  lynched.  Mr.  Hauser  wrote  to 
Senator  Vest,  who  was  then  publishing  a  paper  at 
Boonville,  Missouri,  and  in  which  he  printed  the  let- 
ter. It  in  time  found  its  way  to  that  section,  and  as 
a  result  the  Governor  was  warned  to  leave  the  country, 
but  he  remained  and  completed  his  work.  This  was 
but  one  incident  of  the  many  exciting  and  tragical 
scenes  through  which  he  passed  in  tlie  old  times,  and 
it  illustrates  both  his  kindly  qualities  of  mind  and 
heart,  and  his  courage.  In  conclusion  we  will  briefly 
advert  to  his  genealogy.  His  father,  also  Samuel  T. 
Hauser,  was  born  in  North  Carolina,  and  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  university  of  that  state  in  1817,  with 
the  degree  of  A.  B.  A  lawyer  of  eminence,  he  served 
with  distinction  on  the  bench  of  Kentucky,  his  later 
home,  and  where  he  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss 
Mary  A.  Kenneth,  of  that  state.  They  had  four  sons 
and  three  daughters.  The  paternal  grandfather  of 
Governor  Hauser  was  George  Hauser,  born  in  Ger- 
many, whence  he  immigrated  to  the  United  States 
prior  to  the  Revolution,  in  which  he  served  in  the  North 
Carolina  troops,  in  which  state  he  died. 

Phillip  Lovell.  The  death,  in  June,  1907,  of  Phillip 
Lovell,  of  Dillon,  Montana,  removed  another  of  the  old 
pioneer  ranchers  from  the  ranks.  Mr.  Lovell  had  been 
a  rancher  in  Beaverhead  county  for  many  years  and, 
although  he  had  retired  from  active  business  at  the 
time  of  his  d^ath,  he  was  always  deeply  interested  in 
this  phase  of  iN'ontana  life.  He  was  a  large  land  holder 
and  an  influential  and  prominent  citizen,  at  various 
times  holding  ii.iportant  offices  of  public  trust. 

Mr.  Lovell  was  a  native  of  England,  having  been  born 
there  on  the  12th  of  April,  1840,  the  eldest  of  five 
children  of  Jonathan  and  Ann  Abbey  Lovell.  It  was 
in  1862  that  he  came  to  Montana  and  settled  in  Beaver- 
head county.  He  located  in  Bannack,  and  first  became 
engaged  in  the  butchering  business,  in  which  he  con- 
tinued for  a  number  of  years.  In  1872  he  gave  up  this 
work  to  go  into  the  ranching  business,  his  ranch  being 
located  nine  miles  south  of  Dillon.  While  carrying  on 
an  active  stock  business  he  was  also  engaged  in  general 
farming.  In  1902  he  removed  to  Dillon  and  retired 
from  active  business,  living  quietly  in  the  city  until  his 
death. 

Politically  Mr.  Lovell  believed  in  the  principles  of  the 
Democratic  party,  though  he  always  believed  in  voting 
for  the  man  who  was  best  fitted  in  his  eyes  for  the 
oflSce,  regardless  of  party.  In  1880  he  was  elected  on 
the  Democratic  ticket  as  county  commissioner  of 
Beaverhead  county,  his  term  extending  over  a  period 
of  six  years.  In  1893  he  served  as  a  World's  Fair  com- 
missioner to  the  Columbian  Exposition  in  Chicago.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Pioneer  Society  and  in  the  fra- 


ternal world  was  a  leading  member  of  the  Masonic 
order  and  belonged  to  the  St.  Elmo  Commandery, 
Knights  Templar.  Upon  his  death  he  left  a  large  estate, 
his  landed  property  consisting  of  some  three  thousand 
acres.  Both  he  and  his  wife  were  communicants  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  church. 

Mr.  Lovell  was  married  on  July  19,  1875,  to  Mrs. 
Ellen  Thompson,  a  daughter  of  John  and  Susan 
(Showers)  McGowen.  Her  father  was  born  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  her  mother  in  New  Jersey,  but  they  both 
passed  away  in  Fulton  county,  Ohio,  where  her  father 
was  a  farmer.  Mrs.  Lovell  was  born  in  Morrow  county, 
Ohio,  though  she  was  reared  in  Fulton  county,  in  the 
same  state.  By  her  first  marriage  she  had  one  son, 
Frank  Thompson,  who  is  now  fifty  years  of  age, 

Simon  Pepin,  A  pioneer  of  Montana,  Simon  Pepin 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  city  of  Havre  and  one 
of  the  most  substantial  pillars  of  its  subsequent  pros- 
perity, and  for  many  years  has  controlled  and  directed 
some  of  the  largest  productive  resources  in  the  north- 
ern portion  of  the  state.  A  history  of  Montana  during 
the  last  thirty  years  would  not  be  complete  without 
reference  to  him,  one  of  its  most  substantial  char- 
acters.   . 

Simon  Pepin,  of  French  stock  on  both  sides,  was 
born  at  St.  Michael,  Canada,  December  20,  1840.  His 
father,  Samuel,  was  born  in  the  same  locality,  as  was 
also  his  mother,  Mary  (Peprino)  Pepin,  who  died 
when  her  son  Simon  was  four  years  old.  The  par- 
ents  were   substantial   but  unassuming   farming   people. 

In  his  native  town  Simon  was  reared  and  educated 
up  to  his  sixteenth  year,  at  which  time  he  left  home 
and  began  his  practical  career.  Without  capital  and 
without  influence  to  place  him  on  the  road  to  fortune, 
he  found  the  way  by  his  own  ability  and  determina- 
tion, and,  through  ail  the  chances  of  a  rugged  career, 
has  steadily  advanced  to  prosperity  and  influence. 
From  1856  to  1863  he  was  employed  in  a  brick  yard 
at  Saco,  Maine.  In  the  spring  of  1863  he  joined  the 
tide  of  emigration  to  the  west,  and  from  Omaha  made 
the  trip  overland,  with  an  ox  team,  traveling  in  this 
way  around  by  Salt  Lake  City  to  Virginia  City,  Mon- 
tana,  ivhere   he   arrived  the  following   November. 

In  the  spring  of  1864  he  entered  the  service  of  the 
noted  Diamond  R.  Freighting  Company,  and  was  con- 
nected with  that  famous  transportation  business  until 
the  company  was  dissolved  in  1890.  In  the  meantime, 
in  1875,  he  had  begun  on  a  small  scale  as  a  cattle 
raiser,  this  being  at  first  a  side  issue  to  his  regular 
work,  but  by  yearly  increases  and  extensions  he  be- 
came eventually  one  of  the  largest  cattle  raisers  of 
the  state,  and  to  the  majority  of  old  residents  his  name 
is  probalDly  associated  most  familiarly  with  this  great 
industry.  His  experience  as  a  freighter  was  full  of 
incident  and  adventure.  For  fifteen  years  he  made 
regular  trips  to  the  various  towns  and  trading  posts 
throughout  the  vast  territory  covered  by  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Diamond  R.  company,  from  Salt  Lake 
City  on  the  south  to  Fort  Benton  on  the  north.  Dur- 
ing all  that  time  the  life  of  the  freighter  was  a  daily 
round  of  hardship  and  hazard.  From  1879  to  1890 
he  had  charge  of  the  company's  transportation  con- 
tracts with  the  government  at  Fort  Assiniboine.  Since 
1882  his  cattle  and  land  interests  have  been  located 
principally  in  Chouteau  and  Teton  counties.  His 
home  ranch  is  two  miles  from  Havre  on  the  north  side 
of  Alilk  river,  and  in  recent  years  under  his  manage- 
ment has  become  one  of  the  model  farms  in  this  vicin- 
ity. 

When  he  first  made  his  headquarters  in  this  locality, 
Havre  was  not  yet  a  townsite  and  onlv  a  few  cabins 
were  scattered  about  in  the  neighborhood.  He  and 
his  partner,  E.  T.  Broadwater,  whose  part  in  the  affair 
is  described  on  other  pages,  were  the  prime  movers  in 
founding  the  town  and  getting  this  place  as  a  division 


882 


HISTORY  OF 


point  on  the  railroad,  the  success  of  their  efforts  being 
chiefls'  responsible  for  the  subsequent  upbuilding  of  this 
commercial  center.  Mr.  Pepin  is  president  and  senior 
partner  of  the  Broadwater-Pepin  Company,  which  owns 
many  business  blocks,  miscellaneous  buildings  in  Havre 
and  lands  in  the  surrounding  district.  He  is  also  one 
of  the  principal  stockholders  in  the  Security  State 
Bank  of  Havre,  and  has  interested  himself  in  prac- 
tically all  of  the  important  enterprises  which  have  con- 
tributed to  the  commercial  progress  of  the  city.  Mr. 
Pepin  has  never  married.  He  is  one  of  the  best  known 
among  the  pioneers  of  Montana,  has  enjoyed  a  large 
share  of  the  prosperity  of  the  Treasure  state,  and  as 
a  public-spirited  citizen  has  returned  much  for  the 
permanent  upbuilding  and  welfare  of  his  portion  of 
this   commonwealth. 

Harry  Marshall  Ramsey.  Prominent  among  the 
business  men  of  Billings  who  are  making  this  city  one  of 
the  large  commercial  centers  of  this  part  of  the  west 
is  Harry  Marshall  Ramsey,  who  has  met  with  excep- 
tional success  as  a  dealer  in  fine  horses.  Mr.  Ramsey 
is  essentially  a  product  of  the  west,  having  been  born  at 
a  mining  camp  near  South  Pass,  Wyoming,  November 
17,  1872,  and  is  a  son  of  John  ]Marshall  and  Roselia  A. 
(McDonald)   Ramsey. 

John  Marshall  Ramsey  was  born  in  Loveland,  Cler- 
mont county,  Ohio,  June  7,  1842,  and  received  his  edu- 
cation at  his  native  place,  after  which  he  learned  the 
trade  of  carpenter  and  wheelwright.  When  he  was  only 
nineteen  years  of  age  he  entered  the  Union  service  dur- 
ing the  Civil  war,  serving  as  a  messenger  under  General 
Cox  in  Rosecran's  division.  When  he  had  completed  his 
army  service  he  went  to  California,  via  the  isthmus  of 
Panama,  but  after  spending  a  short  time  in  prospecting 
for  gold,  traveled  overland  through  Idaho  and  entered 
Montana  during  the  sixties.  Settling  first  at  Last 
Chance  Gulch,  he  subsequently  moved  on  to  Virginia 
City,  and  later  was  engaged  in  gold  mining  and  trading 
with  the  Indians  on  the  present  site  of  the  city  of 
Helena,  after  which  he  went  to  Fort  Benton.  There 
he  assisted  in  building  boats  covered  with  rawhide, 
which  was  effectual  in  causing  the  bullets  from  the  In- 
dians' guns  to  deflect,  and  in  1868  went  down  the 
Missouri  river  with  a  partv  to  Omaha.  In  1869  or  1870, 
Mr.  Ramsey  went  with  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  to 
Cheyenne,  where  he  assisted  in  building  the  first  house 
in  that  city,  and  then  entered  the  service  of  the  United 
States  government  for  a  time,  being  engaged  in  work- 
ing at  his  trade.  At  Fort  Stambeau,  Wyoming,  he  par- 
t'cipated  in  a  number  of  raids  with  the  troops  against 
the  Indians,  and  later,  with  his  wife  and  children,  ac- 
companied the  troops  to  Fort  Custer,  where  he  was 
engaged  in  the  cattle  business  until  1882,-  having 
brought  the  animals  from  Wyoming.  In  that  year  Mr. 
Ramsey  came  overland  to  the  present  site  of  Billings, 
where  he  spent  the  summer,  and  then  removed  to 
Golden  Creek,  on  the  Musselshell  river,  continuing  in 
the  cattle  business  at  that  point  until  1883,  when  he 
sold  his  interests  to  the  Courtland  Cattle  Company  and 
located  in  Billings,  where  during  the  winter  of  1883-84 
he  conducted  a  roller  skating  rink,  the  first  of  its  kind 
in  Billings.  In  1885  he  engaged  in  the  livery  business, 
under  the  firm  name  of  Ramsey  and  Smith,  an  associa- 
tion which  continued  until  1889,  and  from  that  time 
until  his  retirement  he  gave  his  attention  to  the  horse 
ranch  conducted  by  himself  and  son,  under  the  firm 
name  of  John  M.  Ramsey  &  Son,  and  which  had  its 
inception  in  1884.  Mr.  Ramsey  was  elected  sheriff  of 
Yellowstone  county  at  the  first  state  election  in  1889, 
serving  in  that  position  with  universal  satisfaction  for 
six  years.  That  Mr.  Ramsey  was  held  in  the  highest 
esteem  in  his  adopted  city  was  demonstrated  bv  the 
following  order,  issued  October  10,  191 1,  by  the  Grand 
Masonic  Chapter  of  the  State,  of  which  we  quote  only 
a  part :   "To  all  Grand  Chapters  in  Correspondence  with 


MONTANA 

the  Grand  Chapter  of  Royal  Arch  Masons  of  Montana;  1 
to  the  Grand  Officers  and  all  Subordinate  Chapters,  R. 
A.  M.  of  ^Montana.  Companions:  The  working  tool; 
have  fallen  from  the  hands  of  a  skilled  craftsman  who 
has  labored  faithfully  in  our  quarries  for  many  years — 
R.  E.  Companion  John  M.  Ramsey,  Past  Grand  Scribe. 
After  but  a  week's  illness  Companion  Ramsey  passed 
away  on  Sunday,  September  24,  191 1,  at  his  home  in 
Billings,  Montana,  death  being  due  to  peritonitis.  His 
burial  services  were  conducted  by  Ashlar  Lodge,  No.  29, 
of  Billings,  on  September  26,  with  a  Templar  escort 
from  Aldemar  Commandery,  No.  5.  At  the  graveside 
Excellent  Companion  Arthur  C.  Logan  delivered  a 
beautiful  though  impromptu  eulogy  upon  the  life  and 
services  of  our  departed  companion.  Companion  Ram- 
sey was  a  sturdy  character,  whose  sterling  virtues  and 
unfailing  courtesy  won  for  him  the  lasting  affection 
of  his  neighbors,  friends  and  brethren.  *  *  *  j^jg 
wife  survives  him  and  besides  her  are  two  sons,  Harry 
of  Billings,  and  Arthur  of  Roseburg,  Oregon,  and  one 
daughter,  Mrs.  Gerald  Panton,  and  Mrs.  Ed.  Goulding, 
a  stepdaughter,  both  residents  of  Billings.  Only  a  short 
time  before  his  illness  there  had  been  a  family  reunion 
and  the  heart  of  the  father  was  rejoiced  in  the  pride 
of  haying  his  wife  and  children  about  him.  His  Masonic 
association  of  forty  years  he  cherished  highly;  was  a 
splendid  exemplar  of  its  precepts  and  a  faithful  devotee 
of  its  teachings.  It  was  in  1886  that  he  afiiliated  with 
Ashlar  Lodge,  No.  29,  of  Billings,  and  in  1889  he  served 
as  its  master.  For  two  years  he  served  as  king  of 
Billings  Chapter  No.  6,  R.  A.  M.,  and  became  its  high 
priest  in  1896.  At  its  organization  he  became  a  member 
of  Aldemar  Commandery  No.  5,  K.  T.,  but  held  none 
but  an  appointive  office  therein.  When  the  command- 
ery was  instituted,  he  was  appointed  standard  bearer, 
and  with  the  exception  of  one  year,  filled  the  position 
by  reappointment  until  his  death.  In  1894,  when  the 
Grand  Chapter  met  in  Billings,  he  was  honored  by  the 
election  to  the  position  of  grand  scribe.  He  did  not  at- 
tend subsequent  annual  meetings  but  was  beloved  by  hi? 
companions  in  Billings,  and  throughout  the  state  where- 
ever  known. 

"The  following  tribute  is  quoted  from  his  home 
paper :  'The  friends  of  John  M.  Ramsey  included  all 
with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  for  there  never  was  a 
man  in  the  community  who  possessed  in  a  higher  degree  1 
the  charm  of  attracting  the  love  and  friendship  of  those  1 
with  whom  he  associated,  and  this  was  effected  without  ' 
any  conscious  effort  of  his  own  and  solely  by  the  kindli- 
ness and  geniality  which  seemed  to  radiate  from  his 
presence.  Enemies  he  had  none,  and  no  man  had  so 
many  and  such  devoted  friends.  In  his  family  he  was  a 
most  kind  and  affectionate  husband  and  father,  and  those 
he  leaves  behind  him,  now  mourning  and  broken- 
hearted, will  ever  cherish  with  loving  memory  his 
kindly  thoughtfulness  and  tenderness.  Of  the  tenets 
of  Freemasonry  he  was  a  loyal  follower,  and  held  the 
ancient  craft  in  high  esteem.  In  his  life  of  brotherly 
love  no  member  better  exemplified  the  principles  of  the 
order,  in  which  he  was  at  various  times  elevated  to  high 
office.  As  a  public  officer  he  discharged  his  duties  with 
fidelity  to  his  trust.  He  tempered,  so  far  as  possible, 
justice  with  mercy,  but  never  flinched  from  any  task, 
however  dangerous  or  onerous  which  it  was  his  duty  to 
perform.  The  generous  heart  which  throbbed  only  with 
kindly  impulses  beats  no  more;  the  hand  ever  open  to 
relieve  distress  or  suffering  lies  nerveless  across  his 
breast ;  the  genial  smile  which  reflected  the  goodness 
within  the  man  will  no  more  be  seen  by  mortal  eyes ; 
but  the  memory  of  all  that  was  good  and  true  in  John 
Ramsey  will  long  remain  with  this  community,  an  in- 
centive for  all  who  knew  him  to  a  better,  kinder  and 
more  loving  life.' 

"As  a  token  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  our  beloved 
companion  it  is  ordered  that  this  memorial  be  read  at 
the   next    regular   convocations   of   the    chapters   within 


/"'if  Zr»Tj  yv^/^'*/'^  ; 


-y^^^/.w!»-Ifi  .^  Br^  JV  y" 


4k 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


883 


this  jurisdiction  and  that  suitable  mention  be  made  of 
it  in  your  records. 

"Fraternally  submitted,  Harry  M.  Allen,  Grand  High 
Priest. 

"Attest  Cornelius  Hedges,  Jr.,  Grand  Secretary." 

The  eulogy  which  was  mentioned  above  as  being 
given  by  A.  C.  Logan  follows :  "Dear  Friends — I  am 
conducting  this  burial  service  at  the  request  of  our 
brother  while  among  us,  who  on  dififerent  occasions 
requested  that  I  should  conimit  this  earthly  tabernacle 
to  its  native  elements,  earth  to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes, 
dust  to  dust,  there  to  remain  until  the  sounding  of  the 
last  trumpet.  This  I  have  done  to  the  best  of  my  abilitv, 
according  to  the  limitations  prescribed  by  our  ritual. 

"In  closing  I  am  constrained  to  overstep  the  preroga- 
tives of  the  ceremonials,  and  take  advantage  of  the  op- 
portunity offered  to  address  a  few  words  to  the  living, 
believing  that  the  life  and  death  of  our  deceased  brother 
is  a  fitting  text  for  our  consideration,  and  to  that  end 
I  beg  your  kind  indulgence  for  the  few  moments  I  shall 
occupy,  and  I  trust  that  my  efforts  may  be  of  such 
nature  as  to  receive  your  endorsement. 

"We  are  assembled  today,  to  ofifer  up  before  the  world 
the  last  said  tribute  of  our  afifection  and  esteem  to 
the  memory  of  one  beloved  while  here  on  earth.  We 
have  dropped  the  sympathetic  tear  and  wrapped  about 
his  foibles,  whatever  they  may  have  been,  the  broad 
mantle  of  Masonic  charity;  as  perfection  on  earth  has 
never  yet  been  attained,  the  wisest  as  well  as  the  best  of 
men  have  gone  astray,  therefore  we  will  not  withhold 
from  his  memory  the  commendation  his  virtues  are  en- 
titled to  at  our  hands. 

"We  are  gathered  about  this  narrow  house  prepared 
to  receive  the  lifeless  clay  which  has  performed  for 
three  score  years  and  ten,  man's  full  allotted  span  for 
his  pilgrimage  here  below,  its  mission  of  serving  as  an 
earthly  habitat.  No  more  worthy  tenant  ever  inhabited 
earthly  domicile,  than  he  who  so  recently  burst  the 
bonds  that  bound  him. 

"This  grave,  that  coffin,  contain  nothing  that  should 
cause  a  tear  or  a  pang  other  than  the  memories  they 
excite ;  they  are  empty,  meaningless,  and  no  longer  a 
part  or  parcel  of  hira  we  knew.  This  bank  of  beautiful 
flowers,  the  symbol  of  affection  of  surviving  friends 
typify  the  beauty  of  his  life. 

"John  Ramsey's  life  was  a  beautiful  exemplification 
of  manly  traits  and  virtues,  and  embodies  all  those  ele- 
ments, essential  to  constitute  an  ideal  life,  as  if  the  gods 
had  all  conspired  to  place  their  imprint  to  give  the 
world  evidence  of  a  man.  His  greatest  charm  was  his 
modest  and  retiring  nature,  and  shrinking  from  ostenta- 
tious display  at  all  times  and  on  all  occasions.  For  in 
his  magnanimity  he  rejoiced  more  in  the  success  of  his 
friends  than  in  any  achievement  of  self. 

"In  the  state  and  nation  he  was  a  patriotic,  law  abid- 
ing and  consistent  citizen ;  in  official  life  a  brave  and 
fearless  officer,  never  shrinking  from  danger  or  priva- 
tion while  in  the  discharge  of  duty  and  never  remiss 
in  the  performance  of  them,  except  when  he  was  called 
upon  officially  to  perform  some  service  that  would  dis- 
tress a  friend  or  his  family,  as  many  instances  are  re- 
corded and  others  known,  where  his  purse  relieved  the 
unfortunate  and  he  himself  became  the  bearer  of  the 
burden.  Misfortune  and  grief  of  others  appealed  deeply 
to  his  generous  nature,  selfishness  was  a  personage  he 
never  knew.  In  his  family  he  was  a  patient  and  indul- 
gent husband  and  father;  in  the  community,  amid  the 
daily  walks  of  life,  a  cheerful  companion  and  an  in- 
spiration, ever  looking  and  leading  to  the  bright  side 
and  taking  optimistic  views  of  all  things.  He  was 
never  known  to  speak  disparagingly  of  anyone  except 
of  those  whose  life  was  a  menace  to  society  and  decency. 

"As  a  member  of  the  ^Masonic  fraternity,  to  which  he 
was  dceol}-  attached  during  a  period  covering  most  of 
his  adult  career,  he  was  recognized  as  a  prominent 
pillar.    We  knew  him  in  scenes  that  the  world  knew  not 


of,  and  phases  of  his  character  were  exhibited  that 
enable  us  to  speak  of  him  with  reverence  and  admira- 
tion. 

"As  a  Master  Mason,  he  practiced  all  the  virtues  in- 
culcated in  the  moral  code  of  ethics  taught  by  symbolic 
ritual  and  tradition ;  as  a  Knight  Templar,  he  was  a  firm 
believer  and  adherent  to  the  Christian  religion,  profess- 
ing faith  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  the  cruci- 
fi.xion  and  ascension  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  and  we 
who  knew  him  best  believe  that  he  is  entitled  to  all  the 
glory  and  awards  that  await  the  valiant  Knight,  who 
believes  in  and  practices  the  Christian  virtues. 

"To  the  Brothers  who  survive  him,  especially  to  those 
who  have  reached  the  meridian  of  their  existence  and 
are  descending  the  western  slope,  this  address  is  fraught 
with  feelings  of  deep  meaning  and  interest,  and  as  I 
recall  the  memories  of  the  past,  let  me  exhort  you  to 
realize  the  importance  of  considering  the  present  and 
the  future  ere  it  is  too  late.  We  should  all  be  im- 
pressed with  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion,  and  resolve 
that  we  will  consider  more  seriously  our  approaching 
fate,  and  make  preparations  for  the  coming  of  that 
'grim  messenger.'  We  have  ascended  the  long  and 
weary  road  from  youth  to  manhood  by  different  avenuci 
and  our  paths  are  marked  by  various  degrees  of  success 
Each  of  you,  I  believe,  has  done  the  best  you  could  ac- 
cording to  the  opportunity  and  the  light  afforded.  We 
have  reached  the  zenith  of  our  power,  and  in  looking 
backward  if  we  can  feel  that  we  have  lightened  the 
load  and  encouraged  an  erring  or  discouraged  Brother 
by  our  word  or  example,  it  will  be  a  light  to  our  feet 
as  we  descend  rapidly  and  almost  imperceptibly  the 
grade  to  that  'bourne  from  which  no  traveller  ever 
returns.'  We  know  not  how  soon  the  friends  who  now 
surround  us  may  be  called  upon  to  perform  the  sad 
rites  of  consigning  our  bodies  to  their  last  resting  place. 

"To  the  younger  members  who  are  just  starting  on 
their  career  characterized  by  the  enthusiasm  that  is  the 
heritage  of  youth,  and  buoyed  up  by  hopes  of  future 
wealth  and  position,  the  road  may  appear  long  and 
the  burden  heavy,  but  remember  that  you  are  girded 
with  the  breast-plate  of  righteousness.  My  earnest 
prayer  is  that  you  may  be  successful  in  avoiding  the 
numerous  snares  and  pitfalls  that  ever  beset  the  path  of 
youth.  That  you  may  not  fall  an  early  victim  to  that 
relentless  tyrant,  death,  who  'reaps  the  bearded  grain 
with  a  breath,  and  the  flowers  that  grow  between'  for 
the  arm  of  friendship,  the  wealth  of  the  world,  the  in- 
nocence of  youth  and  the  charms  of  beauty  can  not  inter- 
pose to  prevent  his  coming.  May  you  all  be  spared  to 
realize  your  fondest  hopes  and  the  full  fruition  of  your 
ambition. 

"Let  me  address  a  final  WJ3rd  to  you  while  standing 
on  the  brink  of  the  grave  of  one  you  loved,  who  was 
your  friend  and  mentor.  Let  me  admonish  you  to 
imitate  his  pure  and  blameless  life,  his  utter  aliena- 
tion of  self,  and  follow  in  the  steps  of  this  great  man; 
for  he  was  great,  because  to  be  great  is  to  be  good. 

"And  as  we  return  at  the  close  of  these  ceremonies 
to  our  Masonic  Hall  and  view  the  vacant  chair  draped 
in  mourning,  we  shall  miss  him  whose  mortal  part  lies 
before  us  clad  in  the  habiliments  of  the  grave,  but  this 
lump  of  earth  is  not  our  Brother.  He  still -lives;  he 
will  be  with  us  and  we  shall  feel  his  presence  in  our 
heart  of  hearts. 

"And  now  in  conclusion,  to  the  relatives  of  the  de- 
ceased we  have  but  little  of  this  world's  comfort  to 
offer.  We  deeply,  truly,  and  sincerely  sympathize  with 
you  in  your  affliction,  and  participate  in  a  degree  at  least 
in  the  consolation  afforded  you  that  he  whom  you  mourn 
lived  respected,  died  lamented  and  has  left  behind  him 
a  monument  that  will  stand  when  chiseled  stone  and 
storied  urn  have  passed  away  and  are  forgotten  by  the 
generations  yet  to  come. 

"And  now,  dear  friends,  if  any  words  that  I  have 
uttered  have  suggested  thoughts  which  shall  have  found 


884 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


a  resting  place  in  your  heart  for  future  resolve  or 
good,  I  shall  have  great  cause  for  rejoicing,  and  feel 
that  I  have  not  taxed  vour  time  and  patience  in  vain. 

Harry  Marshall  Ramsey  spent  his  boyhood  days  un- 
der the  parental  roof,  his  education  being  secured  in  the 
public  schools  of  Billings.  When  he  was  only  twelve 
years  of  age  he  showed  such  business  ability  and  sa- 
gacity that  his  father  took  him  to  the  horse  ranch  at 
Golden  Creek,  on  the  Musselshell  river,  and  when  his 
father  became  sheriff  of  the  county  in  1889  the  youth 
was  made  a  deputy.  In  1895  Mr.  Ramsey  went  to 
Aransas  Pass,  Texas,  where  he  erected  a  hotel  and  spent 
one  year,  subsequently  moving  to  Houston,  where  he 
spent  the  winter  of  1897.  Another  year  was  spent  at 
Temple,  Bell  county,  Texas,  and  he  then  returned  to 
Billings  and  engaged  in  buying  and  selling  horses 
with  his  father,  the  firm  continuing  as  John  Ramsey 
&  Son  until  the  time  of  his  father's  death,  since  which 
time  Mr.  Ramsey  has  continued  in  business  alone.  He 
is  a  member  of  Billings  Lodge,  No.  394,  Benevolent 
Protective  Order  of  Elks,  and  in  political  matters  is  a 
stanch  Republican.  .     ,   . 

In  April,  1901,  Mr.  Ramsey  was  united  in  marriage 
with  Miss  Lena  B.  Tweedle,  who  was  born  in  Bell 
county,  Texas,  daughter  of  William  and  Nancy 
(Kao-en)  Tweedle.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ramsey  have  had  one 
son:  Harry  Darrel,  born  October  10,  1904.  Mr.  Ram- 
sey is  successfully  carrying  on  the  business  founded  by 
his  father  and  is  a  worthy  representative  of  that  hon- 
ored pioneer.  He  takes  a  great  interest  in  all  matters 
pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  Billings,  and  is  ready  at  all 
times  to  assist  in  forwarding  movements  calculated  to 
make  for  advancement.  He  and  his  wife  reside  at  No. 
928  North  Thirtieth  street,  where  their  many  friends 
are  always  sure  of  a  warm  and  hospitable  welcome. 

Harrison  Brown.  The  fortunes  of  Harrison  Brown 
have  been  identical  with  those  of  the  state  of  Montana 
since  the  year  1863,  when  he  came  as  a  boy  of  fourteen 
years  to  this  state,'  then  a  part  of  Idaho.  He  is  a  native 
Missourian,  born  in  Jasper  county,  near  the  town  of 
Carthage,  on  the  2Sth  of  November,  1845,  and  is  the 
son  of  David  G.  and  Susan  (Gormely)  Brown,  both 
of  whom  were  born  and  reared  and  passed  their  lives  in 
the  state  of  Missouri. 

The  early  schoohng  of  Harrison  Brown  did  not  ex- 
tend beyond  his  fourteenth  year,  for  in  that  year  he 
left  his  home  in  Missouri  and  came  to  the  west,  stop- 
ping for  the  winter  of  1863  in  Alder  Gulch.  In  the 
following  summer  (1864)  he  went  to  Bannack  in 
Beaverhead  county,  there  engaging  in  mining  opera- 
tions, and  this  county  has  represented  his  home  from 
that  time  to  the  present.  He  devoted  himself  to  mine 
work  until  1867  and  in  that  year,  though  but  a  lad  in 
years,  he  returned  his  attention  to  independent  farming 
and  stock  raising,  that  being  the  business  in  which  he 
had  been  reared  at  home.  Today  Mr.  Brown  has  a 
fine  ranch  of  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  situated 
some  six  miles  northwest  of  Grant  in  Beaverhead 
county,  which  is  given  over  to  the  stock  and  grain 
business.  For  a  number  of  years  he  was  interested  in 
cattle  raising,  but  some  time  ago  he  withdrew  entirely 
from  the  cattle  business  and  since  then  horse  raising 
has  been  his  chief  interest. 

Mr.  Brown  has  led  an  interesting  and  exciting  life  in 
the  west,  having  passed  through  the  years  of  lawless- 
ness which  characterized  this  section  in  its  early  days 
of  development,  but  which  have  long  since  been  replaced 
with  manners  and  customs  similar  to  those  found  in 
more  easterly  districts.  In  the  Indian  depredations  he 
experienced  his  full  share  of  annoyance,  and  played  an 
important  part  in  the  Nez  Perce  war  in  assisting  in  car- 
ing for  the  unprotected  during  those  days  of  terror. 
When  a  boy  in  Virginia  City  in  1864  he  witnessed  the 
hanging  of  five  lawless  characters  in  a  partially  com- 
pleted   building   which    was    originally    designed    for    a 


drug  store  by  one  "Bill''  Morrison,  but  it  served  nicely 
as  a  gallows  on  this  hurried  occasion.  Other  inci- 
dents of  a  similar  nature  have  marked  his  career  and 
he  has  a  ripe  and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  early 
Montana. 

Mr.  Brown  is  a  Democrat,  staunch  and  true,  and  has 
been  active  in  the  ranks  of  the  party  in  his  district. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Montana  Pioneers. 
He  has  a  wide  acquaintance  in  the  state  and  is  the  inti- 
mate friend  of  W.  A.  Clark  of  Montana  mining  fame. 

Warren  C.  Gillette..  Half  a  century  has  passed 
since  Warren  C.  Gillette  came  to  Montana.  He  was  an 
important  factor  in  the  development  of  the  localities  in 
which  he  resided  and  was  one  of  the  worthy  pioneers 
of  the  state,  recognized  as  a  prosperous  stockgrower 
on  Dearborn  river  in  the  vicinity  of  Craig.  The  mental, 
moral,  social  and  material  development  and  advance- 
ment of  the  state  ever  received  his  support,  and  he 
served  in  positions  of  trust  and  responsibility.  Mr.  Gil- 
ette  was  born  in  Orleans,  Ontario  county.  New  York, 
on  March  10,  1832,  and  died  September  8,  1912,  at  the 
home  of  his  cousin,  W.  F.  Parker,  in  Helena,  Montana. 
His  original  American  ancestors  were  French  Hugue- 
nots, who  located  in  Connecticut.  There  was  born  in 
1802  Orimel  Gillette,  the  father  of  our  Montana  pioneer, 
and  his  brother,  Caleb  Gillette,  was  likewise  a  native  of 
Connecticut.  In  early  manhood  Orimel  Gillette  removed 
to  New  York,  where  he  married  Miss  Julia  E.  Ferris, 
born  in  that  state.  They  settled  in  Oneida  county, 
where  the  father  for  many  years  practiced  medicine,  liv- 
ing to  the  age  of  four  score  years,  his  wife  passing  away 
at  the  age  of  sixty.  Of  their  two  sons  and  three  daugh- 
ters, Warren  C.  was  the  eldest.  He  never  married,  nor 
did  his  sister,  Eliza  P.,  who  was  his  housekeeper  and 
devoted  companion  until  her  death. 

Warren  Caleb  Gillette,  after  attending  the  public 
schools,  pursued  his  studies  in  Oberlin  College,  Ohio, 
leaving  that  institution  in  1850  and  staying  for  a  time 
in  Columbus,  after  which  he  returned  to  New  York 
and  was  engaged  as  a  clerk  in  Oneida  county  until 
1855.  when  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  entered  the  em- 
ploy of  E.  R.  Kellogg  &  Company,  wholesale  hatters 
and  furriers,  continuing  with  this  firm  until  1859,  and 
in  that  year  he  engaged  in  the  same  line  of  business  as 
a  retailer  at  Galena,  Illinois,  conducting  the  enterprise 
for  two  years.  In  the  summer  of  1861  Mr.  Gillette  once 
more  returned  east  and  was  occupied  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  furs  in  New  York  city  until  the  spring  of  1862, 
when  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Montana  led  him  hither. 
His  intention  was  to  make  Salmon  river  his  destina- 
tion, and  at  St.  Louis  he  embarked  on  the  steamer 
"Shreveport"  and  came  up  the  Missouri,  disembarking 
between  the  mouth  of  the  INIilk  river  and  old  Fort 
Union,  as  low  water  prevented  further  progress  by 
boat.  After  remaining  in  camp  about  a  week  the  party 
started  overland  to  Fort  Benton.  Two  days  later  they 
met  a  large  band  of  Assiniboine  and  Crow  Indians,  and 
the  younger  ones  were  inclined  to  stop  the  journey  of 
the  party  up  the  river,  while  some  of  the  older  chiefs 
were  in  favor  of  letting  the  emigrants  do  as  they 
pleased.  The  Indians  determined  to  hold  a  council  and 
decide  upon  the  course  to  be  pursued,  and  the  council 
was  held  that  night,  but  the  emigrants  had  concluded  to 
return  to  their  camp  on  ^lilk  river  and  in  the  morning 
turned  their  teams  in  that  direction,  whereupon  the  In- 
dians informed  them  that  they  must  go  up  the  river,  as 
the  council  had  decided  that  they  might  do  so,  and 
insisted  that  the  white  men  ought  not  now  to  turn 
back.  So,  going  toward  Fort  Benton,  they  arrived  there 
in  September,  but  soon  went  on  to  the  old  town  of 
Montana  City  on  Prickly  Pear  creek,  where  they  went 
into  camp.  They  called  the  place  Camp  Indecision, 
because  they  here  learned  of  the  discovery  of  gold  at 
Bannack,  and  waited  here  until  they  could  send  a  dele- 


~za^ 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


885 


gation  and  learn  the  true  state  of  affairs  at  Bannack, 
and  something  of  its  attractions  as  a  place  of  settlement. 
They,  however,  remained  at  the  camp  until  their  belated 
supplies  reached  Fort  Benton  and  they  then  transported 
them  with  mule  and  ox  teams  to  Deer  Lodge,  once 
known  as  LaBarge  City.  Here  Mr.  Gillette  purchased  a 
cabin  of  C.  A.  Broadwater,  intending  to  occupy  it  as  a 
store,  but  as  Bannack  was  far  more  prosperous,  he 
proceeded  to  that  place,  arriving  in  December,  1862.  He 
brought  his  stock  of  goods,  an  assortment  of  miners' 
supplies  principally,  bringing  the  goods  on  pack  horses 
in  three  trips  from  Fort  Benton  to  Bannack.  On  one 
of  these  trips  the  Indians  stole  all  of  his  horses  while  he 
was  encamped  on  Sun  river,  not  far  distant  from  the 
site  of  Great  Falls.  He  recovered  nearly  one  half  of 
the  animals  and  obtained  enough  more  from  the  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company  to  enable  him  to  continue  his  trip 
to  Bannack.  A  year  later  he  transferred  his  stock  to 
Alder  gulch,  where  gold  was  discovered  in  1863,  and 
was  in  general  trade  in  Virgmia  City  until  1865,  being 
associated  with  James   King. 

Upon  the   discovery   of   gold   in   Last   Chance   gulch, 
they  brought  their  stock  to  Helena,  following  the  rush 
of  miners  thither.     Here  King  &  Gillette  were  engaged 
in    the    freighting    and    mercantile    business    from    1865 
until  1869,  and  were  in  partnership  in  mining  operations 
until  1877.    These  earlier  trips  were  attended  with  great 
danger  from  both  Indians  and  road  agents,  and  Mr.  Gil- 
lette had  many  exciting  experiences  and  narrow  escapes. 
He  was  one  of  the  early  promoters  of  the  placer  min- 
ing system   at    Diamond   City,   and   a    service   of  great 
public  benefit  was  rendered  by  King  &  Gillette  in  their 
Herculean  task  of  opening  the  toll   road   of  ten   miles 
down  Little  Prickly  Pear  canyon.     The  toll  road  saved 
the   travelers   on    the    road    between    Helena    and    Fort 
Benton  from  crossing  the  Lyon  mountains  and   Medi- 
cme  Rock,  as  it  went  down  the  canyon  on  the  present 
route  of  the  Montana  Central  Railroad.    This  important 
work  was  of  inestimable  value  to  the  miners  and  other 
settlers.     The  available  equipment  for  the  construction 
of   this   road   consisted   of   two   plows,    for   which   they 
paid  $175  each,  and  picks  and  shovels.     The  road  was 
completed  in  1866  at  a  cost  of  $40,000,  and  this  amount 
was   obtained    from  tolls  within  two  years.     Later  the 
travel  declined,  but  the  road  was  kept  up  until  in  1875, 
when  the  charter  expired.    King  &  Gillette  were  among 
the  largest  operators  in   Confederate  gulch,  where  they 
employed  a   large   number  of  men   in   the   construction 
of  a  bedrock  flume,  clearing  up  $10,000  in  one  season, 
but  it  eventually  caused  them  a  loss  of  $60,000.     They 
closed  their  operations  in  1877,  and  Mr.  Gillette  engaged 
in  sheep  raising,  with  which  industry  he  continued  to  be 
occupied  for  more  than  a  quarter  century,  having  some 
forty  thousand   acres   of  land  and   raising   sheep   on   a 
most    extensive    scale,    his    flocks    averaging    from    six- 
teen to  twenty  thousand  head.     He  gave  preference  to 
Mermo  sheep  as  best  adapted  to  this  climate.    He  had  a 
fine  ranch  residence  near  Craig  with  modern  improve- 
ments and  facilities,  and  after  the  death  of  his  sister  he 
divided  his  time  between  this  residence  and  Helena. 

Mr.  Gillette  was  a  staunch  Republican  and  took  a 
proper  interest  in  the  public  affairs  of  both  territory  and 
state.  He  was  twice  elected  to  the  lower  house  of 
the  territorial  legislature,  and  was  a  member  of  the 
council,  or  higher  deliberate  body,  for  one  term,  and 
was  also  a  member  of  the  convention  which  framed  the 
present  constitution  of  the  state.  In  public  affairs  he 
gave  evidence  of  wise  discrimination  and  mature  judg- 
ment, and  his  influence  in  the  councils  of  his  party  were 
ever  of  a.  helpful  order.  Mr.  Gillette  gained  and  re- 
tained friends,  and  his  unassuming  but  successful  career 
in  Montana  was  an  honor  to  the  state. 

In  his  passing  Montana  lost  one  of  its  oldest  pio- 
neers, and  the  event  occasioned  wide-spread  sorrow, 
especially  among  the  old  pioneers  and  all  who  were  inti- 


mate with  him  in  his  later  years.  Mr.  Gillette  was  past 
president  of  the  Society  of  Montana  Pioneers  and 
ever  active   in  the  interests  of  that  organization. 

Andrew  Van  Corry.  Departing  this  life  on  June  9, 
1911,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three  years,  eight  months 
and  sixteen  days,  after  long  periods  of  strenuous  ex- 
ertion and  decided  usefulness  in  several  different  parts 
of  the  country  and  under  circumstances  widely  vary- 
ing in  character  and  requirements,  the  late  Andrew 
Van  Corry,  of  Butte,  in  all  his  career  showed  himself 
to  be  a  man  of  unusual  gifts  and  qualifications  for 
work  of  many  kinds  and  ready  adaptability  to  his  sur- 
roundings, however  new  and  untried,  and  whatever 
the  conditions  involved  in  them.  He  was  left  an 
orphan  at  the  age  of  twelve  years  by  the  death  of 
both  parents.  Boy  as  he  then  was,  with  no  knowledge 
of  the  great  world,  with  all  his  standards  and  ideals 
formed  from  his  experiences  in  an  old-fashioned  rural 
community,  with  a  dreamy  impression  that  the  wild 
west  was  the  coming  hope  of  his  country  and  the 
embodiment  of  opportunity  for  aspiring  souls  like 
his,  he  journeyed  some  eight  hundred  miles  in  the 
wake  of  the  setting  sun  in  search  of  chances  to  mend 
and  further  make  his  fortunes  and  landed  in  what 
is  now  a  metropolis  of  the  middle  region  of  our  coun- 
try, and  there  found  employment  and  remained  a 
number  of  years.  His  subsequent  achievements  will 
be  narrated  in  the  following  paragraphs,  throughout 
all  of  which  It  will  appear  that  from  his  boyhood  he 
made  his  own  way  in  the  world,  and  that  in  the  strug- 
gle for  advancement  his  chief  asset  was  his  self-re- 
liance. 

Mr  Corry  was  a  native  of  the  village  of  Newport, 
Charles  county,  Maryland,  where  his  grandfather  the 
progenitor  of  the  American  branch  of  the  family,  lo- 
cated on  his  arrival  from  England  in  this  country  at 
an  early  date,  and  where  his  own  life  began  on  Sep- 
tember 13,  1837.  In  his  native  county  he  attended  the 
public  schools  until  he  reached  the  age  of  twelve 
years,  when,  as  has  been  noted,  his  parents  died  and 
left  him  to  his  own  resources.  His  father  and  his 
grandfather  were  farmers,  and  while  under  their  in- 
fluence he  worked  at  the  same  line  of  productive  use- 
fulness. 

But  when  he  walked  out  into  the  great  world  from 
the  darkened  home  in  which  he  had  been  sheltered 
and  cared  for  from  infancy  and  took  up  the  battle 
of  hfe  for  himself,  he  did  not  adhere  to  the  pur- 
suit they  had  followed.  He  made  his  way  to  St.  Louis, 
and  there  found  employment  with  the  Simmons  Hard- 
ware Company,  with  which  he  remained  several  years. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-one,  with  his  faculties  prema- 
turely developed  and  stimulated  to  great  activity  by 
the  sense  of  personal  responsibility  he  had  been  guided 
by  for  years,  he  took  another  flight  westward  and 
located  at  Georgetown,  Colorado,  where  he  engaged 
in  prospecting  and  the  development  of  quartz  prop- 
erties, and  in  a  short  time  acquired  the  ownership  of 
extensive  mining  interests  in  that  then  fruitful  and 
productive  locality,  in  which  he  passed  five  years  of 
useful   labor   with   good   results. 

In  1863  he  followed  the  trend  of  the  argonauts  of 
the  period  and  came  to  Montana,  locating  at  Ban- 
nack. Later  he  was  actively  engaged  in  placer  min- 
ing in  Alder  Gulch  for  a  number  of  years,  and  during 
the  last  years  of  his  residence  in  that  region  wal 
county  recorder  of  Madison  county.  Before  and  dur- 
ing his  occupancy  of  this  office  he  had  many  claims  in 
Alder  Gukh,  but  he  was  only  partially  successful 
in  developing  them  in  comparison  with  other  miners 
there  then  and  before  and  since  that  time. 

In  1879,  at  the  end  of  his  term  as  recorder  of  Madi- 
son county,  he  moved  to  Butte,  and  here  he  main- 
tained his  residence  until  his  death,  on  June  9,  1911. 
His  principal   occupation   in  Butte  was  as  manager  of 


886 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


circulation  for  the  Butte  Intcr-Mdttiitaiu  and  Anaconda 
Standard,  but  while  engaged  in  that  he  also  kept  up 
his  interest  in  the  mining  industry,  and  pushed  the 
development  of  his  claiins  with  as  much  energy  as 
he  could  command,  and  with  all  the  resources  avail- 
able to  him  under  the  circumstances. 

Mr.  Corry  was  married  at  Florisant,  Missouri,  on 
June  22,  1872,  to  Miss  Anna  Martha  Mattingly,  a 
daughter  of  James  and  Mary  Mattingly,  old  and  es- 
teemed residents  of  .St.  Louis  county  in  that  state. 
To  this  union  four  children  were  born:  Arthur  Vin- 
cent, whose  life  began  in  Virginia  City,  Montana,  on 
May  10,  1874;  Clarence  A.,  who  was  born  at  the  same 
place  on  June  13,  1876,  and  is  novv  a  resident  of 
Butte;  Agnes  P.,  who  came  into  being  on  July  17, 
1878,  also  in  Virginia  City,  and  is  now  the  wife  of 
George  B.  McDonald,  a  prominent  mining  man  of 
Butte;  and  John,  who  was  born  in  Butte  on  March 
22,   1882,  and  died  in  that  city  on  January  2,   1907. 

Andrew  V.  Corry  was  renowned  locally  in  Masonic 
circles,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  one  of  the 
oldest  Freemasons  in  the  state  of  Montana.  He  was 
a  member  of  all  the  branches  of  the  fraternity  in 
the  York  Rite  up  to  and  including  the  Knights  Tem- 
plar degree,  and  all  in  the  Scottish  Rite  up  to  and 
including  the  thirty-second  degree.  He  was  also  a 
Noble  of  the  Mystic  Shrine.  But,  while  he  was  de- 
voted to  the  fraternity  and  took  an  earnest  interest 
in  its  beneficent  work,  he  was  essentially  a  man  of 
domestic  tastes,  warmly  devoted  to  his  home  and 
its  duties,  and  took  but  little  interest  otherwise  in 
fraternity  or  club  life.  Tn  politics  he  was  a  firrn  and 
faithful  Democrat,  and  for  many  years  very  active  in 
the  service  of  his  party,  but  in  the  declining  period 
of  his  life  he  left  political  contentions  and  the  work 
involved  in  them  to  younger  men. 

Arthur  Vincent  Corry  attended  the  schools  of  Butte 
until  within  a  year  of  his  graduation  from  the  high 
school.  Then,  on  account  of  a  serious  illness,  he 
was  obliged  to  leave  without  finishing  his  course.  But 
when  he  was  able  he  again  took  up  his  studies,  at- 
tending the  University  at  Notre  Dame.  Indiana,  from 
1890  to  1893,  and  from  1894  to  1898  the  Colorado  School 
of  Mines,  being  graduated  from  the  latter  in  the  year 
last  mentioned  with  the  degree  of  Engineer  of  Min- 
ing. After  leaving  the  University  he  practiced  his 
profession  in  different  western  states  until  1902,  then 
returned  to  Butte,  where  he  has  been  actively  en- 
gaged in  professional  work  ever  since.  He  has  done 
a  great  deal  of  work  for  large  corporations,  and  has 
also  conducted  extensive  mining  operations  on  his 
own  account  in  Silver  Bow,  Jefferson  and  Granite 
counties  of  this  state,  and  had  connection  with  other 
enterprises  of  the  same  kind  in  other  parts  of  this 
state  and  others  wherein  mining  industries  abound. 
Mr.  Corry  is  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Harper,  Mac- 
donald  &  Company,  Civil  and  Mining  Engineers,  with 
offices  at  203-4-9  Lewiston  Building,  Butte. 

Mr.  Arthur  V.  Corry  is  a  member  of  the  American 
Institute  of  Mining  Engineers  and  the  Montana  So- 
ciety of  Engineers.  Socially  he  is  prominent  in  the 
Silver  Bow  Club  of  Butte,  and  in  fraternal  relations 
belongs  to  the  Order  of  Knights  of  Columbus.  His 
religious  affiliation  is  with  the  Catholic  church,  in 
whose  behalf  he  is  energetic  and  zealous,  as  he  is  in 
connection  with  his  lodge  and  every  enterprise  for 
the  improvement  and  progress  of  his  community  and 
the   benefit  of   its    residents. 

On  September  20,  1903,  he  was  united  in  marriage 
in  Butte  with  Miss  Mary  Armstrong,  a  daughter  of 
James  J.  and  Anna  (Leonard)  Armstrong,  natives 
of  Vancouver,  British  Columbia.  Of  this  union  one 
child  has  been  born,  Andrew  Vincent  Corry,  whose 
life  began  in  Missoula,  on  September  22,  1904,  and 
who  is  the  light  and  life_  of  the  household,  which  is 
a    radiating    point    of    social    enjoyment    in    the    com- 


munity and  a  center  of  genuine  hospitality  to  which 
the  hosts  of  friends  of  the  family  frequently  resort. 
The  family  home  is  located  at  825  West  Galena  street, 
Butte. 

The  father  of  the  late  Andrew  Van  Corry  was  a 
soldier  in  the  Civil  war  and  lost  his  life  on  one  of 
its  sanguinary  battlefields.  His  son,  the  subject  of 
this  review,  was  a  man  of  great  natural  aptitude  for 
mathematical  computations,  and,  although  he  had  not 
an  extensive  education,  was  capable  of  solving  any 
kind  of  an  engineering  problem.  He  was  of  a  modest 
and  retiring  disposition,  never  boastful  of  his  attain- 
ments or  capacity,  and  seemingly  unconscious  of  them. 
He  was  also  a  man  of  generous  and  genuine  practical 
benevolence,  but  never  made  his  works  of  charity 
known  to  the  public.  He  did  his  duty  well,  faithfully 
and  wisely  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  without  the 
hoi)e  of  reward  except  in  the  approval  of  his  own 
conscience,  and  his  worth  was  all  the  more  estimable 
on  that  account.  He  was  in  many  respects  a  remark- 
able man,  and  was  esteemed  in  life  and  is  revered  after 
death  as  one  of  the  best  men  this  county  has  ever 
numbered   among  its   leading  and  most  useful  citizens. 

Hon.  G.  W.  Stapleton.  One  of  Montana's  most 
eminent  legal  counselors,  and  one  of  the  sturdy  char- 
acters of  the  old  days  who  had  no  small  part  in  shaping 
the  destiny  of  the  territory  and  state,  belonged  to  a 
most  able  and  brilliant  coterie  of  lawyers,  which  flour- 
ished exceedingly  in  territorial  times  and  in  the  early 
days  of  statehood,  and  included  such  men  as  Col.  W.  F. 
Sanders.  ^Ir.  Warren  Toole,  Hon.  Sam  Word,  Judge 
Kirkpatrick,  Hon.  W.  W.  Dixon  and  others  among  its 
numljcrs.  Judge  Stapleton  was  one  of  the  forceful 
men  of  Montana,  and  no  history  of  that  commonwealth 
could  afford  him  any  other  than  a  foremost  position 
among  his  contemporaries,  and  at  a  time  when  not  even 
the  oldest  commonwealth  had  more  able  and  brilliant 
bars   than   Montana  possessed   in   territorial  times. 

Judge  Stapleton  came  from  a  prominent  old  south- 
ern family  whose  members  had  migrated  from  South 
Carolina  to  Kentucky,  at  a  time  when  the  latter  state 
was  on  the  western  frontier,  and  where  Judge  Staple- 
ton's  parents  were  born.  A  laudable  migratory  spirit 
kept  impelling  them  to  follow  the  march  of  civilization 
westward,  next  to  Indiana,  where  he  himself  first  saw 
the  light  of  day,  later  to  Illinois,  to  Iowa,  and  so  on 
until  in  Montana,  where  Judge  Stapleton's  life  was 
indeed  one  of  the  most  influential  in  the  first  half  cen- 
tury of  that  state's  history.  He  was  born  in  Rush 
county,  Indiana,  November  28,  1834. 

As  has  been  noted,  his  parents,  Cyrus  S.  and  Margaret 
(Scott)  Stapleton,  were  natives  of  Kentucky.  They 
moved  from  that  state  into  Indiana  soon  after  their 
marriage,  then  after  some  years  to  Illinois,  and  subse- 
quently to  Iowa.  The  father  was  a  physician,  renowned, 
in  every  locality  where  he  practiced,  for  his  extensive 
professional  learning  and  skill  and  his  charming  be- 
nignity of  disposition  and  manner. 

The  scholastic  training  of  Judge  Stapleton  was  re- 
ceived, first  in  the  public  .schools  of  Iowa  and  later  at 
an  excellent  academy  in  Fort  Madison,  that  state.  In 
1852,  when  but  a  boy  of  eighteen,  he  began  the  study 
of  law  in  the  office  of  Hon.  Joseph  M.  Casey,  at  Lan- 
caster, Iowa,  pursuing  it  with  such  diligence  and  suc- 
cess that  he  was  admitted  to  practice  in  November, 
1855,  when  he  was  barely  of  age. 

He  practiced  in  the  courts  of  Iowa  for  four  years, 
then  crossed  the  plains  to  Colorado,  opening  an  ofiice 
there,  and  attended  to  legal  business  entrusted  to  his 
care  until  1862. 

In  that  year  he  removed  to  Montana,  and  finding  the 
demand  for  legal  attainments,  quite  limited,  turned  his 
attention  to  mining  which  proved  profitable  as  he  was 
among  the  first  to  discover  gold,  in  paying  quantities, 
in  the   territory.     This   discovery   was   made   at   Grass- 


~f~Ur//ia^  cgSraMir 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


hopper  creek,  where  he  founded  a  town,  and  which, 
but  for  his  modesty  and,  it  must  be  added,  superior 
judgment,  would  now  bear  his  name.  It  was  the  desire 
of  the  miners  along  the  creek  to  name  the  new  town 
after  him,  but,  as  it  was  in  the  country  of  the  Bannack 
Indians,  Judge  Stapleton  saw  greater  propriety  in  nam- 
ing it  after  them;  and  hence  it  became  Bannack  instead 
of  Stapleton. 

Here  he  followt'd  placer  mining  diligently,  and  at 
different  periods  with  great  success,  at  times  taking  out 
as  much  as  $20  a  pan  from  selected  dirt.  About  a  mile 
below  the  camp  he  purchased  a  claim,  where  with  a 
crude,  hand-made  wooden  rocker,  he  took  out  gold  at 
the  rate  of  from  $200  to  $500  per  day.  Notwithstand- 
ing this  large  yield,  he  was  considered  only  moderately 
successful  as  provisions  and  living  expenses  were  so 
enormously  high. 

In  1863,  Alder  gulch  thrilled  the  western  world  with 
its  wonderful  gold  production,  and,  like  many  others, 
Judge  Stapleton  "stampeded"  for  that  favored  spot. 
But  with  a  prudence  and  forethought  unusual  in  times 
of  great  excitement,  he  halted  the  expedition  at  Beaver- 
head river  on  the  way,  long  enough  for  him  to  write  a 
code  of  laws  for  the  government  of  the  new  camp — 
probably  the  first  codification  of  any  kind  made  in  the 
territory.  He'  accompanied  the  expedition  on  to  the 
gulch,  arriving  in  the  first  party,  carrying  his  laws 
with  him.  He  and  Colonel  ^McLean  together  secured  a 
number  of  valuable  claims  from  which  considerable 
quantities  of  gold  were  extracted.  In  1865,  he  removed 
to  Last  Chance  gulch,  now  Helena,  and  again  took  up 
the  practice  of  law,  finding  great  demand  for  his  pro- 
fessional services.  Five  or  six  months  later  he  located 
at  Ophir  gulch,  and  again  engaged  in  mining.  Subse- 
quently he  went  to  Argenta,  Beaverhead  county,  and  re- 
mained there  until  1879,  engaged  in  quartz  mining  and 
practicing  law. 

It  was  in  the  latter  year  that  he  permanently  located 
in  Butte,  and  where  he  continued  to  reside  until  his 
death.  After  going  to  that  city,  he  turned  resolutely 
away  from  almost  every  other  attraction,  and  for  a 
number  of  years  gave  his  time  and  attention,  almost 
exclusively,  to  that  jealous  mistress,  the  law,  who  re- 
warded his  devotion  with  the  guerdon  of  her  brightest 
smiles. 

He  first  associated  himself  in  practice  in  Butte  with 
Judge  Spratt.  a  partnership  that  continued  until  ihe 
death  of  the  latter,  in  1881. 

The  firm  of  Robinson  and  Stapleton  was  then  formed, 
and  continued  until  1898,  when  death  again  robbed  him 
of  his  partner. 

Judge  Stapleton  then  formed  a  partnership  with  his 
son,  Guy  W.,  in  the  firm  of  Stapleton  &  Stapleton, 
which  continued  as  long  as  the  father  remained  in 
active  practice,  in  fact  was  not  broken  until  the  hitter's 
death,  April  25,  1910. 

Judge  Stapleton  was  really  one  of  the  first  attorneys 
of  the  state  to  devote  his  attention  to  mining  law,  which 
was  destined  to  become  such  an  important  feature  of 
the  practice  in  Montana.  The  experience  he  gained  in 
mining  and  from  close  touch  with  all  the  varied  phases 
of  early  Montana  life,  proved  of  very  great  assistance 
to  him  in  his  professional  career,  and  was  also  of  in- 
valuable assistance  to  the  territory  and  state,  through 
the  practical  knowledge  he  was  able  to  bring  to  bear 
in  the  framing  of  mining  and  other  laws  of  the  new 
country.  Few,  if  any,  of  Montana's  pioneers  were  any 
more  serviceable  and  valuable,  and  it  is  doubtful  if 
any  man  played  a  more  influential  part  in  shaping  the 
laws  and  early  history  of  the  territory.  He  was  elected 
to  the  territorial  legislature  four  times — as  often  as  he 
would  serve — and  during  his  tenure  was  first  speaker 
of  the  house  and  then  ])resident  of  the  senate.  He  was 
also  a  member  of  the  judiciary  committee  of  each  house. 
When  it  was  found  necessary  to  codify  the  laws  of  the 
territory,  all  eyes  turned  to  him  as  a  capable  man  to 
head  the  commission  for  the  purpose,  owing  to  his  wide 


practical  knowledge  and  great  ability.  As  such  he  was 
the  leading  force  in  giving  clearness"  and  consistency  to 
the  body  of  the  statutes  and  proper  trend  to  the  course 
of  subsequent  legislation. 

He  also  served  conspicuously  in  the  convention  of 
1889,  that  formulated  the  constitution  on  which  Mon- 
tana was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  state.  He  was 
always  identified  with  the  Democratic  party,  and  had 
practically  the  refusal  of  every  ofiice  within  the  gift  of 
the  people,  governor,  attorney-general,  supreme  court 
justice,  member  of  congress,  and  all  the  rest,  abso- 
lutely declining  them  all. 

Notwithstanding  the  exactions  of  his  profession,  he 
found  time  to  develop  extensive  mining  interests,  and 
to  contribute  his  share  of  inspiration,  counsel  and  sub- 
stantial aid  to  every  public  improvement  and  social 
enterprise  of  merit.  He  was  an  interested  and  zealous 
member  of  the  Masonic  fraternity,  and  was  one  of  the 
organizers  of  Virginia  City  Lodg:e  No.  i,  the  first  lodge 
chartered  within  the  present  limits  of  the  state. 

Having  accumulated  a  comfortable  fortune,  he  re- 
tired from  active  business  several  years  before  his  death, 
appearing  only  occasionally  in  court,  either  in  his  own 
behalf  or  for  some  old  time  friend. 

Judge  Stapleton  was  regarded  as,  not  only  one  of 
the  ablest  but  as  well  one  of  the  most  successful  of 
the  pioneer  lawyers,  and  always  commanded  the  re- 
spect of  his  brothers  in  the  legal  profession. 

As  a  citizen,  he  was  not  only  one  of  Montana's  oldest, 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  but  one  of  her  worthiest  and 
most  valued  ones.  Throughout  his  life,  he  was  thor- 
oughly independent  in  thought  and  action ;  he  hated 
sham  and  had  a  very  great  aversion  for  pretense  and 
hypocrisy,  as  well  as  being  a  bitter  foe  of  fraud,  a 
Jirm  advocate  of  political  honor  and  an  earnest  and  in- 
defatigable striver  after  official  honesty  and  square 
dealing.  One  of  his  strongest  characteristics  was  his 
rugged  honesty.  His  reading  was  wide  in  its  scope, 
he  was  broad-minded  in  his  views,  independent  in 
thought  and  fearless  in  execution. 

As  previously  stated.  Judge  Stapleton  was  called  to 
his  final  rest  on  April  25,  1910.  He  had  been  ailing 
for  several  years,  but  his  trouble  was  not  such  as  to 
compel  him  to  take  to  his  bed,  although  preventing  him 
from  taking  any  active  part  in  business.  Two  days  be- 
fore his  death  he  was  out  walking  with  his  son,  laugh- 
ing and  telling  stories. 

"I  have  lived  long;  I  have  had  a  good  time;  I  am  not 
scared  to  die;  the  game's  over."  These  were  the  last 
words  he  uttered  shortly  before  he  threw  his  arm  around 
his  son,  Guy  W.   Stapleton,  and  passed  into  the  beyond. 

He  lived  to  see  the  fruit  of  his  labors  in  the  pros- 
perity and  hanpiness  of  the'  people  he  so  faithfully 
served,  and  the  established  success  of  valued  public 
institutions  to  whose  creations  and  development  he 
so  essentially  contributed.  It  is  high  praise,  but  onlv 
a  just  meed  to  merit  to  say,  that  he  deserved  in  full 
measure  the  public  esteem  he  so  richly  enjoyed. 

The  Anaconda  Standard,  at  the  time  of  Judge 
Stapleton's  death,  editorially,  said  of  him  in  part : 
"Loved  by  more  than  a  few,  feared  by. some,  he  was 
esteemed  by  many  and  respected  by  all." 

In  1870,  Judge  Stapleton  was  married  to  Miss  Cora  E. 
Mcintosh,  a  native  of  Missouri.  Their  only  son.  Guy 
W.  Stapleton,  received  his  academic  education  at  Deer 
Lodge,  Montana,  and  his  technical  professional  training 
in  the  law  department  of  the  University  of  'Virginia, 
from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1895.  He  at  once  became 
associated  with  his  father  in  active  practice,  at  Butte, 
where  he  has  since  been  located.  He  served  as  county 
attorney  of  Silver  Bow  county  and  has  also  served  as 
a  member  of  the  Montana  state  legislature. 

He  is  one  of  the  well  known  of  the  younger  profes- 
sional men  and  capitalists  of  Montana,  whose  private 
interests  are  varied  and  extensive. 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


George  W.  Irvin.  The  passing  of  George  W.  Irvin 
on  March  i8,  1907,  deprived  Butte  and  the  state  of  Mon- 
tana of  one  of  her  pioneer  citizens,  and  of  a  man  who 
made  history  in  the  state  from  the  days  of  his  earliest 
connection  therewith  until  his  death.  He  was  a  man  of 
strong  character,  possessing  all  the  attributes  which  in- 
variably make  for  success  of  the  highest  and  most  last- 
ing order,  as  well  as  citizenship  of  the  finest  type. 

A  native  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  George  W.  Irvin  was 
born  on  February  22,  1844,  the  son  of  John  B.  and  Ellen 
M.  (Walton)  Irvin,  both  natives  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
father  was  an  early  settler  in  Chicago,  in  the  days  when 
it  was  not  more  than  a  cabin  village  upon  the  lake 
front ;  indeed,  so  unpromising  was  the  place  that  in 
1848  he  removed  his  family  to  his  native  state.  But  in 
1853  he  returned  once  more  to  Illinois,  this  time  locating 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  state.  He  later  removed  to 
Dubuque,  Iowa,  which  for  years  represented  his  home 
and   the    center   of   his   business   activities. 

George  W.  Irvin  diligently  attended  school  until  he 
was  seventeen  years  of  age,  that  period  bringing  him  to 
the  opening  of  the  Civil  war.  He  sought  to  enlist  in 
a  Kansas  regiment  for  the  three  months'  service,  but 
with  his  entire  company  was  rejected,  the  regiment  hav- 
ing been  filled  before  it  reached  Fort  Leavenworth.  In 
July,  1863,  when  not  yet  twenty  years  of  age,  he  assisted 
John  Bozeman  in  organizing  a  party  to  make  an  over- 
land trip  to  Idaho,  western  Montana  then  being  a  part 
of  that  territory.  Thus  early  in  life  did  the  bold  and 
venturesome  spirit  which  ever  characterized  the  actions 
of  Mr.  Irvin  assert  itself  in  his  connection  with  this 
expedition.  When  the  company  reached  the  place  now 
known  as  Buffalo,  Wyoming,  they  were  greeted  by  a 
band  of  Sioux  and  Cheyenne  Indians,  several  hundred 
strong,  and  things  were  made  interesting  for  their  party 
for  some  time.  After  a  few  days'  detention  Mr.  Irvin 
and  a  companion  were  sent  to  Fort  Laramie,  a  distance 
of  175  miles,  to  secure  rehef  for  the  beleaguered  partj^. 
They  made  the  trip  in  three  nights'  riding,  passing 
through  a  hostile  Indian  country,  and  on  reaching  the 
Fort  were  refused  aid  by  the  post  commandant,  as  a  re- 
sult of  which  the  party  returned  to  the  Platte  river. 
Certain  hardy  spirits  of  the  party,  however,  including 
Bozeman,  Irvin  and  eight  others,  refused  to  be  deflected 
from  their  original  purpose,  and  set  out  alone,  each 
equipped  with  a  horse,  a  rifle  and  ammunition,  and  ra- 
tions for  a  day,  looking  forward  to  bringing  down  suffi- 
cient wild  game  to  suffice  their  needs  in  that  respect. 
It  was  in  late  August  that  they  reached  the  summit  of 
the  Belt  mountains,  there  getting  their  first  view  of 
beautiful  Gallatin  Valley.  Mr.  Irvin  gave  to  the  gap 
the  appellation  of  Bozeman  Pass,  a  name  which  it  has 
since  continued  to  bear,  and  upon  the  site  where  they 
camped  is  located  the  city  of  Bozeman.  At  the  conflu- 
ence of  the  three  branches  of  the  Gallatin  river  the  little 
party  encountered  two  men  who  informed  them  of  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  Alder  Gulch,  now  Virginia  City. 
On  August  22,  1863,  Mr.  Irvin  reached  that  place,  im- 
mediately engaging  in  mining  operations,,  to  which  line 
of  enterprise  he  gave  his  attention  there  and  in  'Cali- 
fornia Gulch  for  something  like  two  years. 

Early  in  life  Mr.  Irvin  formed  his  first  connection 
with  affairs  of  a  public  nature,  being  but  twenty-one 
years  of  age  when  in  1865  he  was  appointed  clerk  of  the 
commission  to  codify  the  laws  of  the  territory.  In  the 
following  year  he  became  assistant  assessor  of  internal 
revenue  for  the  district  comprising  Deer  Lodge,  Mis- 
soula and  Beaverhead  counties,  also  serving  as  deputy 
United  States  marshal.  In  1866  Deer  Lodge  reached 
the  dignity  of  a  post  office,  and  Mr.  Irvin  was  appointed 
to  the  office,  retaining  the  post  for  two  years.  From 
1874  to  1876  he  was  under-sheriff  of  Deer  Lodge  county, 
and  he  was  public  administrator  of  the  county  in  1876, 
and  clerk  of  the  second  judicial  district  in  1879.  After 
his  removal  to  Silver  Bow  he  was  county  sheriff  from 


1882  to  1884,  and  he  was  United  States  marshal  in  1889 
and  1890,  being  the  last  man  to  hold  that  office  under 
the  old  territorial  regime  and  the  first  incumbent  after 
Montana  became  a  state.  As  a  result  of  his  connection 
in  that  respect  he  was  superintendent  ex-officio  of  the 
territorial  penitentiary,  but  when  the  territory  became  a 
state  he  resigned  the  office.  In  1893-4  he  was  state  com- 
missioner of  mineral  lands,  and  while  the  incumbent  of 
this  important  office  he  employed  counsel  and  fought  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railway  successfully  in  the  case  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railway  vs.  Richard  P.  Barden,  et  al. 
Following  the  decision  of  the  supreme  court  in  favor 
of  the  defendant,  through  the  aid  of  the  senators  and 
congressmen  from  Montana,  Mr.  Irvin  brought  about 
the  enactment  by  Congress  of  a  law  for  the  subsequent 
examination,  classification  and  segregation  of  17,000,000 
acres  of  land  within  the  Northern  Pacific  land  grant, 
thus  saving  for  the  prospectors  about  one-half  of  the 
land  involved  and  relegating  it  to  the  public  mineral 
lands  of  the  United  States. 

In  1881  Mr.  Irvin  changed  his  residence  to  Butte, 
which  continued  to  represent  his  home  until  his  death. 
The  public  offices  named  above  of  which  Mr.  Irvin  was 
the  able  and  efficient  incumbent  are  sufficient  in  num- 
ber and  importance  to  convey  a  somewhat- adequate  idea 
of  the  mental  capacity  and  executive  ability  of  the  man, 
and  they  show  clearly  the  character  of  his  services  to 
his  party  and  the  regard  in  which  he  was  ever  held  by 
those  in  high  places,  as  well  as  those  in  the  less  import- 
ant walks  of  life.  In  March,  1898,  Mr.  Irvin  was  ap- 
pointed postmaster  of  Butte,  a  post  which  he  retained 
until  his  death.  In  his  capacity  as  postmaster  he  won 
high  commendation  for  his  ability  and  skill  in  the 
administration  of  its  affairs,  and  the  many  improvements 
he  brought  about  in  the  service.  Under  his  regime  the 
office  was  brought  to  the  very  highest  standard  and 
many  innovations  for  the  good  of  the  system  originated 
in  his  mind  and  were  carried  out  under  his  supervision, 
later  becoming  adopted  and  standardized  in  postal  cir- 
cles throughout  the  country. 

On  October  23,  1867,  Mr.  Irvin  was  united  in  mar- 
riage at  Deer  Lodge  with  Miss  Bettie  H.  Irvine,  the 
daughter  of  Thomas  Howard  Irvine.  One  daughter 
was  born  to  them,  Mary  B.,  who  died  on  September  17, 
IQ04.  Of  the  marriage  ceremony  a  local  chronicle 
records  that  "three  hundred  citizens  of  the  territory 
attended  the  reception  at  the  Deer  Lodge  Hotel,  among 
whom  were  many  Indian  women,  wives  of  white  set- 
tlers." a  commentary  which  is  eloquent  of  the  freedom 
and  jovous  abandon  of  those  early  days. 

Mr.  Irvin  was  buried  in  Mount  Moriah  cemetery,  in 
Butte,  Montana.  The  widow  of  Mr.  Irvin  still  retains 
her  residence  in  Butte,  where  she  is  regarded  as  one  of 
the  city's  most  estimable  ladies.  She  is  prominent  in  the 
Episcopal  church,  in  which  she  is  one  of  the  leading 
workers,  in  addition  to  which  she  carries  on  a  deal  of 
charitable  work  in  a  great  many  directions. 

Concerning  the  passing  of  Mr.  Irvin,  many  interesting 
testimonials  to  his  life  and  work  were  published  at 
the  time,  some  of  which  wc  shall  here  quote  as  being 
representative  of  the  general  regard  and  esteem  in 
which  the  deceased  was  held.  In  speaking  of  him  to 
the  Standard,  United  States  Senator  Lee  Mantle  said: 
"His  long  and  efficient  public  service  in  numerous  im- 
portant positions,  his  active  interest  in  public  affairs 
and  his  prominence  in  Republican  politics  long  smce 
made  George  W.  Irvin  a  distinguished  as  well  as  a 
familiar  personality  in  the  official,  social  and  political 
life  of  Montana.  No  man  was  more  widely  or  more 
favorably  known  throughout  the  I-ngth  and  breadth  of 
the  state.  I  think,  perhaps,  it  was  in  political  conven- 
tions that  his  impressive  personality,  his  clear  percep- 
tions, his  strong  individuality  and  dominating  force  of 
character  made  themselves  most  distinctly  felt.  On 
such  occasions  he  exerted  an  influence  peculiarly  his 
own,  and  when  aroused  gave  evidence  of  great  power. 


r~y    i-y  ^  i-    '■'■:v^  J  1^-  ^  B-a  .V?' 


<y  ,<i-<^ 


'J?/ 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


889 


If  he  believed  an  injustice  was  likely  to  be  done,  no 
considerations  of  tact,  no  pandering  to  expediency,  no 
appeal  of  clique  or  faction  could  stay  him  from  giving 
vigorous  and  often  caustic  expression  to  his  dissent  and 
his  condemnation  of  what  he  deemed  to  be  wrong;  and 
upon  such  occasions  he  usually  carried  his  point.  At  the 
same  time,  he  was  a  sagacious  counselor,  possessed  of  a 
vast  fund  of  strong,  practical  common  sense,  all  oi 
which  made  him  a  potent  factor  in  shaping  the  policies 
and  destinies  of  the  Republican  party  in  this  state. 

"He  was  a  man  of  unflinching  courage  and  great 
independence  of  character.  I  do  not  think  he  knew 
the  meaning  of  fear  in  any  sense  or  under  any  circum- 
stances. He  possessed  a  broad  and  keen  intelligence ; 
had  read  and  studied  extensively,  and  was  gifted  with  a 
most  tenacious  memory,  which  rarely  ever  let  go  of  an 
event  or  fact  of  interest  or  importance,  either  local  or 
national.  He  was  a  thinker,  and  held  decided  views 
upon  questions  of  public  concern.  He  had  the  courage 
of  his  convictions  and  gave  them  forcible  and  effective 
expression  whenever  occasion   required. 

"As  a  potent  factor  in  the  pioneer  life  of  this  commu- 
nity, in  the  early  establishment  of  law  and  order  and 
the  rule  of  justice,  and  later  in  the  advancement  of  the 
moral,  material  and  intellectual  development,  he  ranked 
in  a  class  with  that  great  Montanian,  the  lamented  Wil- 
bur F.  Sanders.  In  manner  he  was  dignified,  courtly 
and  affable;  a  fine  conversationalist,  always  interesting 
and  entertaining,  whether  talking  in  private  or  speaking 
in  public.  His  fund  of  information  was  inexhaustible, 
and  it  was  indeed  a  rare  treat  to  listen  to  his  recital  of 
early  experiences,  interspersed,  as  they  always  were, 
with  stories  told  with  a  humor  and  in  a  manner  pecul- 
iarly his  own.  In  all  Montana  no  man  was  more  wel- 
come at  the  banquet  board,  and  many  there  are  who  will 
recall  with  sentiments  of  genuine  pleasure,  now  mingled 
with  profound  regret,  his  felicitous  responses  when 
called  upon  for  a  toast.  No  one  could  be  happier  on 
such  occasions,  and  his  remarks  were  always  a  source 
of  unmixed  delight,  teeming  with  interesting  reminis- 
cences, sparkling  with  kindly,  genuine  humor,  and 
always  accompanied  by  a  story  or  anecdote  to  give  pith 
and  point  to  the  subject. 

"George  W.  Irvin  might  have  had  almost  any  political 
honor,  within  the  gift  of  the  people  had  he  so  desired. 
Of  his  abilities  and  capacity  there  was  no  question. 
But  apparently  he  did  not  desire  it.  Neither  did  he  care 
for  great  wealth,  nor  seek  to  pander  to  it.  At  the  same 
time,  no  man's  counsel  was  more  sought  or  valued  than 
his  in  times  of  stress  by  those  holding  positions  of  great 
responsibility  in  the  community. 

"I  never  knew  a  man  so  absolutely  free  from  envy 
and  I  never  heard  a  word  fall  from  his  lips  except  in 
gratification  over  the  good  fortunes  of  others.  He  was 
an  optimist;  always  hopeful,  always  seeing  the  bright 
side  of  things,  always  holding  out  encouragement  to 
others.  If  he  had  trouble  and  worries  he  kept  them  to 
himself.  He  was  punctilious  in  the  discharge  of  every 
obligation,  no  matter  how  trifling.  Added  to  these,  he 
was  a  genial,  companionable,  manly  man;  a  loyal  and 
steadfast  friend,  and  a  patriotic,  true  American  citizen. 
Death  had  no  terrors  for  him;  he  feared  it  less  than 
any  one  I  ever  knew;  and  no  one  was  ever  less  con- 
cerned for  the  future.  He  believed  that  the  surest  pass- 
port to  whatever  of  happiness  or  salvation  might  be  be- 
yond was  in  being  square  and  honorable  here. 

"These,  somewhat  hurriedly  and  imperfectly  expressed, 
are  a  few  of  my  impressions  of  one  of  the  best  men  I 
have  ever  known,  and  one  of  the  best  friendships  I  have 
ever  had.  Our  friendship  ran  through  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  my  regret  at  this  moment  is 
that  I  have  not  the  power  of  expression  to  put  into  words 
all  that  I  think  and  feel,  and  all  that  his  useful  life  and 
sterling  character  deserve.  His  death  leaves  a  void  in 
this  community  and  in  this  state  which  it  will  be  hard 


to  fill,  for  his  was  a  commanding  presence  and  his  life 
was  a  potent  force  for  good." 

An  editorial  in  a  Butte  daily  speaks  in  the  following 
terms  of  Mr.  Irvin:  "It  would  be  hard  to  name  a  citi- 
zen of  those  actively  identified  with  Butte's  community 
life  whose  death  would  be  more  keenly  felt  by  men, 
women  and  children  in  every  walk  of  life  than  has  been 
the  passing  of  George  Irvin. 

"For  almost  half  a  century,  or  since  the  days  when 
white  men  began  to  people  what  is  now  the  state  of 
Montana,  George  Irvin's  erect  figure  has  been  as  famil- 
iar as  the  noble  outline  of  the  hills  which  encircle  Sum- 
mit Valley.  Built  upon  big  lines  physically  and  men- 
tally, he  became  while  still  a  young  man  a  forceful  fac- 
tor in  the  growth  of  the  territory,  and  it  is  recorded  of 
him  that  from  those  stirring  days  when,  with  John 
Bozeman,  he  looked  upon  imminent  death  in  every  form 
unflinchingly  until  that  gray  dawn  when  peacefully  and 
in  the  slumber  like  unto  that  of  a  babe,  his  kindly  soul 
passed  out  to  his  creator,  he  was  the  same  frank,  fear- 
less, generous,  lovable  gentleman. 

"Disdaining  show  and  ostentation  of  any  kind,  his 
undisguised  analyses  of  men  and  situations  were  at 
times  almost  startling  in  their  candor,  but  to  those  in 
suffering  or  in  distress,  to  all  who  were  in  need  of  the 
sincere  condolence  or  assistance  of  a  friend  or  counsel- 
lor, George  Irvin  was  as  gentle  as  a  woman,  as  gracious 
as  a  courtier,  with  a  heart  full  of  human  sympathy  and 
kindness. 

"Apart  from  that  charming,  innate  philosophy  which 
made  him  a  man  with  the  young  heart  of  a  boy,  George 
Irvin  possessed  those  traits  which  are  essential  to  leader- 
ship. Fluent  of  tongue,  and  of  pen,  a  keen  observer,  a 
deep  thinker  and  a  studious  reader,  when  he  said  or 
wrote  anything  it  was  worth  hearing  or  reading. 
Although  holding  Federal  office,  George  Irvin  was 
neither  a  time  server  nor  an  office  hunter.  He  was  a 
bigger  man  than  is  required  for  the  duties  he  fulfilled; 
he  would  have  in  larger  fields  attained  a  much  greater 
measure  of  success.  But  men  of  his  stamp  are  not  to  be 
measured  by  the  degrees  of  their  material  profit,  or  by 
their  acquisition  of  place  or  power  of  wealth  They  are 
guided  by  simple,  human  impulse  rather  than  by  cupid- 
ity or  restless  ambition ;  their  influence  is  reflected  in 
the  lasting  love  and  respect  of  all  who  come  in  contact 
with  them,  and  there  is  no  one  who  knew  him  who  does 
not  count  the  death  of  'Uncle  George'  a  personal  loss. 

"Butte  and  Montana  have  lost  a  good  citizen ;  thou- 
sands have  lost  a  faithful  friend;  a  wife  has  lost  a  lov- 
ing husband ;  but  neither  the  snows  of  the  centuries  nor 
the  sands  of  time  will  ever  cover  his  grave  deep  enough 
to  obliterate  the  memory  of  his  kindly  personality  or 
the  greatness  of  his  generous  heart." 

Editorially,  the  Butte  Miner  said  in  part :  "Butte  has 
been  called  upon  to  mourn  the  untimely  death  of  George 
W.  Irvin, — one  of  its  best  loved  public  citizens,  who  at 
the  time  of  his  demise  was  serving  his  third  term  as 
postmaster  of  this  city. 

"Mr.  Irvin  died  after  a  short  illness,  and  his  death 
cast  a  shadow  of  sorrow  over  the  entire  community,  for 
no  one  was  acquainted  with  him  who  did  not  have  an 
abiding  affection  for  him,  and  admire  his  sterling  quali- 
ties and  intellectual  endowments.  He  crossed  the  plains 
when  eighteen  years  of  age  with  John  M.  Bozeman,  and 
although  occasionally  away  from  the  state  on  public 
business,  once  spending  some  years  in  Washington,  as 
mineral  and  land  commissioner,  he  always  called  Mon- 
tana 'home,'  and  took  an  immense  pride  in  the  upbuild- 
ing of  this  commonwealth.  With  the  history  of  early 
days  and  men  he  had  a  most  intimate  knowledge,  for  he 
had  occupied  confidential  relations  of  friendship  with  all 
the  prominent  figures  that  have  had  a  part  in  the  work 
of  making  Montana  what  it  is  today. 

"Those  who  knew  him  best  know  that  it  was  his 
desire   that  when  he  crossed  to  the  other  side  no  ex- 


890 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


tended  obituary  notices  be  given  him,  for  he  often 
expressed  that  sentiment  which  Tennyson  put  into  verse : 
"  'Sunset  and  evening  star. 

And  one  clear  call  for  me! 

And  may  there  be  no  moaning  of  the  bar 

When  I  put  out  to  sea.' 

"The  death  of  'Uncle  George  Irvin,'  as  he  was  famil- 
iarly called,  has  left  a  vacancy  in  the  business,  social  and 
club  life  of  Butte  that  can  never  be  filled,  and  he  will 
ever  be  held  in  affectionate  memory  by  all  those  now 
living  who  learned  lo  know  and  love  him." 

John  F.  Bishop.  Montana  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude 
to  its  pioneers,  whose  stout  hearts,  alert  minds  and  will- 
ing hands  conquered  the  wilderness  and  whose  cour- 
age, determination  and  infinite  patience  in  the  face  of 
discouragement  made  it  possible  to  lay  in  the  new 
country  the  paths  of  civilization  straight  and  clean.  A 
representative  of  the  finest  type  of  pioneer  resides  in 
Dillon,  this  being  John  F.  JBishop,  one  of  the  most 
honored  and  prominent  of  the  citizens  of  Beaverhead 
county.  He  has  resided  in  the  state  since  1863,  and  in 
the  interim  has  engaged  in  mining,  ranching  and  sheep- 
raising,  his  being  the  distinction  of  inaugurating  sheep- 
raising  in  the  state,  the  first  stock  sheep  driven  into  the 
state  being  his  possession.  He  is  a  great  traveler  and 
is  familiar  with  many  corners  of  the  country.  Mr. 
Bishop  is  a  remarkably  public-spirited  man  and  there 
is  nothing  of  public  import  at  Dillon  or  in  all  the 
Beaverhead  valley  in  which  he  is  not  helpfully  inter- 
ested. 

Mr.  Bishop  was  born  at  Warsaw,  Wyoming  county. 
New  York,  his  eyes  first  opening  to  the  light  of  day  on 
March  14,  1836.  He  resided  in  the  Empire  state  until 
the  age  of  twenty-one  and  then  followed  the  tide  of 
migration  to  the  northwest,  locating  in  Kilbourn,  Wis- 
consin, where  he  followed  teaming  and  rafting  on  the 
Wisconsin  river  for  about  a  twelvemonth.  Tiring  of 
that,  he  bought  forty  acres  of  prairie  land  in  the  vicinity 
of  Kilbourn,  with  the  intention  of  cultivating  it,  but 
again  he  became  interested  in  other  directions  and  at 
the  end  of  six  months  he  built  a  flat  boat  and  went 
down  the  river  to  Hannibal,  Missouri,  where  he  spent 
another  six  months  and  then  went  to  St.  Louis  and 
thence  on  up  the  river  to  Leavenworth,  Kansas.  There 
he  hired  out  to  an  overland  train  for  Pike's  Peak,  in 
some  useful  capacity,  and  his  subsequent  journeys  took 
him  to  Denver  and  to  Nevada  City,  Colorado,  where  he 
engaged  in  mining  and  teaming  for  some  three  years. 

In  the  spring  of  1863  Mr.  Bishop's  peregrinations 
ceased,  for  he  came  to  Montana,  whose  advantages  and 
opportunities  appealed  to  him  so  eloquently  that  the 
wanderlust  was  never  again  able  to  get  hold  of  him. 
He  settled,  on  April  20th  of  the  year  mentioned,  in 
East  Bannack,  then  a  part  of  Idaho,  and  his  first  occu- 
pation was  mining  in  Bivins  Gulch.  Subsequently  he 
followed  freighting  for  three  years  between  Virginia 
City  and  Salt  Lake  and  in  the  summer  of  1865  he 
freighted  from  Benton  to  Helena.  He  then  settled  in 
the  Beaverhead  valley,  about  eight  miles  below  Dillon, 
and  went  into  the  stock  raising  business.  This  county 
was  to  be  the  scene  of  his  residence  for  all  the  ensuing 
years.  In  1869  he  went  to  Oregon  with  Richard  A. 
Reynolds  and  these  gentlemen  bought  a  band  of  stock 
sheep  at  The  Dalles  and  drove  them  through  to  Mon- 
tana, thus  becoming  pioneer  sheep  growers  in  the  Treas- 
ure state,  which  then  had  a  score  of  years  before  it  as 
a  territory.  As  mentioned  in  a  preceding  paragraph, 
this  lot  from  The  Dalles  was  really  the  first  band  of 
stock  sheep  ever  driven  into  the  state.  His  operations 
in  sheep  raising  were  on  an  extensive  scale  and  pros- 
perity has  been  his  from  the  beginning;  he  is  a  large 
land  holder  and  a  man  of  substance  and  wealth.  In 
189Q  he  sold  his  ranch  and  since  has  maintained  his 
residence    in    Dillon ;    however    his    vast    interests    still 


occupy  a  great  deal  of  his  time  and  he  is  by  no  means 
retired  in  the  usual  sense  of  the  word,  retaining  his 
pristine  vigor  and  executive  ability,  and  managing  his 
various  enterprises  with  rare  good  judgment. 

As  a  citizen  Mr.  Bishop  is  interested  in  the  success 
of  good  government,  and  is  a  Republican  in  his  con- 
victions, although  by  no  means  an  office  seeker.  He 
is  very  prominent  and  popular  in  ^Montana  Masonry, 
belonging  to  all  the  different  bodies  and  having  "traveled 
east"  with  the  Shriners.  He  was  at  one  time  eminent 
commander  of  the  Dillon  commandery  and  in  his  own 
living  he  exemplifies  the  ideals  of  moral  and  social 
justice  and  brotherly  love  for  which  the  order  stands. 
He  is  a,  member  of  the  Beaverhead  Social  Club  and  at 
one  time  a  trustee.  He  was  formerly  a  member  of  the 
board  of  managers  of  the  ^Montana  State  Normal  Col- 
lege. At  present  he  belongs  to  the  school  board  and  is 
the  staunch  champion  of  good  education.  He  has  the 
distinction  of  being  the  first  justice  of  the  peace  in 
Beaverhead  vallej'.  He  is  particularly  an  authority  on 
horses  and  loves  good  horse  flesh  and  horse  racing, 
and  on  his  own  property  raises  standard  bred  stock. 

Mr.  Bishop  was  married  at  Warsaw,  New  York,  Sep- 
tember 14,  1874,  the  young  woman  to  become  his  wife 
and  the  mistress  of  his  household  being  Jennie  F.  Pain- 
ter, daughter  of  Edwin  and  Hannah  Painter,  the  father 
an  agriculturist  in  the  vicinity  of  Warsaw.  Into  their 
home  have  been  born  three  children,  all  daughters. 
Mildred  E.,  born  in  Dillon,  is  the  wife  of  Leslie  A. 
Thompson  and  resides  at  Twin  Bridges,  where  Mr. 
Thompson  is  engaged  in  the  lumber  business.  Mary  P., 
born  in  Warsaw,  New  York,  died  in  Ogden,  Utah,  at 
the  age  of  five  years.  Jean  F.,  a  native  of  Dillon,  makes 
her  home  with  her  parents  and  is  an  interesting  and 
accomplished  young  lady.  The  household  is  one  of  the 
favorite  gathering-places  in  Dillon,  and  its  hospitality 
is  renowned. 

Benjamin  B.  Bishop,  father  of  the  foregoing,  was 
born  in  Lancaster,  New  Hampshire,  and  when  young 
located  in  the  state  of  New  York,  where  he  engaged 
in  farming.  He  died  in  the  Empire  state  at  the  age  of 
ninety-one  years.  The  mother,  Lydia  Bishop,  was  a 
native  of  Warsaw,  New  York,  where  she  was  married 
and  lived  out  her  life.  She  preceded  her  husband  to 
the  Great  Beyond  by  many  years,  her  demise  occurring 
at  the  age  of  sixty-nine.  There  were  eleven  children  in 
the  family  of  these  good  people,  Mr.  Bishop  of  this 
review  being  the  fourth  in  order  of  birth.  Mr.  Bishop 
was  reared  to  the  sturdy  discipline  of  his  father's  farm 
and  earned  his  first  money  at  the  age  of  twelve,  digging 
potatoes.  He  became  a  capitalist  to  the  extent  of  six 
dollars  and  invested  the  same  in  a  calf  and  by  clever 
juvenile  speculating  increased  it  to  one  hundred  dol- 
lars. This  was  a  real  start  in  life  and  he  has  been 
hustling  for  himself  ever  since.  He  is  an  extensive 
traveler,  making  regular  trips  to  such  parts  of  the 
North  American  continent  as  Alaska,  California  and 
Mexico.  When  the  canal  is  finished  he  intends  to  visit 
Panama.  He  is  familiar  with  a  vast  extent  of  country 
and  his  various  experiences  have  made  him  a  most 
entertaining  conversationalist.  He  declares  Montana  to 
be  the  best  state  in  existence  and  as  a  man  of  strictest 
honesty  and  unfailing  good  judgment  he  must  be  taken 
at  his  word. 

Charles  D.  McLure.  In  the  story  of  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  and  most  valuable  mining  enterprises 
of  Montana,  the  history  of  the  discovery  and  develop- 
ment of  Granite  Mountain,  the  central  personality,  the 
man  whose  unshaken  confidence  and  tireless  resource 
brought  this  great  wealth  to  the  uses  of  the  world,  was 
Charles  D.  McLure,  of  Philipsburg.  The  history  of 
Granite  Mountain  belongs  elsewhere  in  this  work,  and 
this  brief  article,  which  concerns  the  life  career  of^Mr. 
McLure,    will    make    only    such    reference    to    it    as    is 


(^A/iA^  ^/S^u:/^i^<iyL 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


891 


necessary  to  an  understanding  of  the  character  and  work 
of  one  of  Montana's  most  conspicuous  citizens. 

Charles  D.  McLure,  so  many  years  of  whose  early 
life  were  spent  on  the  western  frontier,  was  of  a  race 
of  pioneers,  two  generations  before  him  having  been  in 
the  vanguard  of  the  progress  to  the  west.  He  was 
born  at  Carrollton,  Carroll  county,  Missouri,  Febru- 
ary 22,  1844,  and  was  reared  principally  in  the  city  of 
St.  Louis,  where  he  attended  the  public  schools.  His 
first  regular  employment  and  first  earnings  were  as  col- 
lector for  a  railroad  company,  at  a  salary  of  seventy- 
five  dollars  a  month. 

In  i860,  when  he  was  sixteen  years  old,  he  joined  a 
freighting  outfit  on  the  way  from  Nebraska  to  Denver, 
and  was  thus  introduced  to  the  fascinating  adventures 
and  hardships  of  the  west.  Although  a  boy  in  years,  he 
was  fitted  better  than  most  men  for  struggling  with 
the  conditions  of  the  new  and  developing  country  along 
the  slope  of  the  Rockies.  After  three  years  of  freight- 
ing in  Colorado  he  came  up  to  Virginia  City  with  a 
band  of  cattle,  the  route  being  over  trails  dimly  blazed 
and  through  the  Sioux  infested  valley  of  the  Platte. 
He  discharged  the  responsibilities  of  this  trust,  and  thus 
arrived  in  the  region  which  has  practicaly  ever  since 
been  the  scene  of  his  career. 

Having  accumulated  a  little  capital,  and  having  plenty 
of  initiative  and  courage,  in  1865  he  engaged  in  freight- 
ing on  his  own  account,  operating  an  outfit  between 
Virginia  City  and  Salt  Lake  City  for  one  winter,  and 
then  between  Helena,  Benton  and  Fort  Copeland  to  the 
mouth  of  Milk  river.  After  that  he  transferred  his 
energies  to  mining.  His  first  venture  was  in  Confeder- 
ate gulch  for  one  year,  his  associates  being  Charles 
Dahler,  Ivey  Myers  and  W.  H.  Parkinson.  He  then 
moved  to  the  Unionville  district,  where  he  located  one 
particularly  valuable  lode,  an  extension  of  the  Whit- 
lach  Union.  But  he  was  soon  convinced  that  success 
in  quartz  mining  depended  upon  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  geology  and  metallurgy,  and  having  reached  this  con- 
clusion he  proceeded  with  characteristic  energy  to  equip 
himself  for  what  has  been  his  life  profession.  Return- 
ing to  Missouri,  he  studied  the  science  that  underlies 
mining,  and  when  he  returned  to  Montana  it  was  to  take 
charge  of  the  old   Centennial  mill  in  Butte. 

In  1877  Air.  McLure  assumed  the  management  of  the 
already  famous  Hope  mill  at  Philipsburg.  In  this  lo- 
cality he  found  the  field  of  achievement  for  which  all 
his  previous  life  had  been  a  preparation.  It  was  largely 
due  to  the  energy  and  skill  with  which  he  handled  the 
Hope  mill  that  that  property  yielded  its  rich  revenues 
to  its  owners,  and  while  there  his  attention  was  at- 
tracted to  the  unpromising  prospect  that  had  been 
opened  in  Granite  ;Mountain.  Interesting  though  they 
are,  the  details  of  the  story  cannot  be  told  here.  Briefly 
narrated,  he  displayed  his  remarkable  faith  and  miner's 
intuition  as  to  the  stores  of  silver  awaiting  behind  the 
granite  fortresses  of  this  mountain.  In  1880  he  took 
a  bond  on  the  property,  with  difficulty  got  together  capi- 
tal to  make  the  venture,  and  started  the  attack  on  the 
great  ledge.  After  weeks  of  unprofitable  work,  with  no 
prospect  of  anything  better  in  sight,  a  day  came  when 
there  was  no  more  money  available.  The  digging  of 
that  day  did  not  change  conditions,  and  with  the  last 
shift  it  was  apparent  that  operations  must  suspend,  for 
a  time  at  least.  The  last  shot  was  fired  on  the  evening 
of  that  day.  It  hurled  bonanza  ore  upon  the  muckers' 
planks,  and  in  an  instant  transformed  Charles  D.  Mc- 
Lure from  an  almost  penniless  prospector  into  one  of 
the  greatest  mining  men  of  the  times. 

The  Granite  Mountain  has  produced  more  than 
twenty-five  millions  to  the  wealth  output  of  Montana. 
Most  of  it  and  of  other  enterprises  in  which  Mr.  Mc- 
Lure was  a  prominent  factor  went  to  make  millionaires 
elsewhere,  but  he  has  retained  a  share  of  it  all,  and 
for  thirty  years  has  been  ranked  among  the  successful 
and  wealthy  men  of  this  state.     As  another  writer  has 


said :  '"There  are  many  mills  among  the  Montana 
Rockies  which  are  monuments  to  the  courage  of  this 
remarkable  man,  many  hoists  which  are  testimonials  to 
his  daring.  When  he  was  confident  there  was  ore  to  be 
found,  he  never  hesitated  a  minute  to  risk  his  all  to 
find  it.  In  the  face  of  discouragement,  he  became  the 
bolder  and  more  determined.  The  harder  he  had  to 
fight,  the  better  he  fought.  And  it  stands  today  as  his 
record  that  he  was  almost  invariably  right.  When  he 
had  adopted  and  approved  a  property,  he  knew  no  rest 
until  h(!  had  demonstrated  by  development  the  correct- 
ness of  his  theory  regarding  it.  Obstacles  which  would 
have  dismayed  an  ordinary  man,  he  brushed  aside  as 
if  they  were  nothing.  He  had  his  goal  set  and  he  worked 
straight  toward  it.  He  did  not  drive  blindly  at  it,  but 
he  worked  inteligently  and  effectively;  he  planned  his 
campaign,  and  he  followed  his  plan  through  thick  and 
thin."' 

What  Montana  means  to  him  in  the  light  of  his  own 
experience  Mr.  McLure  tells  in  his  own  words :  "I 
came  to  Montana  when  there  were  very  few  roads.  1 
have  seen  it  grow  from  an  unorganized  territory  to  its 
present  development.  1  saw  it  through  its  pioneer  days 
when  we  had  some  of  the  best  immigration  that  ever 
came  west  from  all  parts  of  the  Uinted  States.  I  left 
-Montana  in  1881  expecting  to  reside  in  St.  Louis.  But 
the  mountains  and  valleys,  the  beautiful  climate  and 
the  people  of  IMontana,  and  the  state  in  general,  were 
more  attractive  to  me  than  I  realized,  and  I  have  re- 
turned." 

Mr.  McLure  was  married  in  St.  Louis  in  November, 
1885,  to  Miss  Clara  M.  Edgar,  daughter  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  T.  D.  Edgar,  of  that  city.  They  are  the  parents 
of  seven  children,  four  sons  and  three  daughters,  namely: 
Park,  Edgar,  William  R.,  ]\Iarianna,  Clara  E.,  Charlotte 
and  Charles  L.  All  of  them  reside  in  this  state,  and 
lidgar  and  William  are  married  and  have  homes  of  their 
own.  They  received  excellent  schooling,  and  some  of 
them  are  college  graduates. 

Mr.  McLure  has  for  years  been  one  of  the  leaders 
in  the  public  life  of  the  state,  and  is  one  of  the  most 
prominent  members  of  the  Democratic  party  of  Mon- 
tana. He  is  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Montana  Pio- 
neers and  he  and  his  wife  are  members  of  the  Episcopal 
church.  At  his  home  in  Philipsburg  he  has  a  very  fine 
private  library.  Though  he  began  life's  battles  when  a 
l)oy,  and  spent  many  years  among  the  crude  scenes  of 
a  frontier  state,  he  has  acquired,  along  with  a  broad 
and  deep  experience  of  men  and  affairs,  a  cultured  ac- 
quaintance with  books  and  their  contents.  Much  of 
his  study  has  been  directed  along  scientific  lines,  es- 
pecially in  connection  with  his  profession,  and  as  a  met- 
allurgist he  has  high  rank.  Much  that  he  has  achieved 
during  nearly  a  half  century  of  residence  in  Montana 
has  been  wrought  into  the  history  of  the  state.  To  state 
his  career  in  concise  language,  he  first  came  upon  Mon- 
tana's soil  as  a  freighter  and  became  one  of  the  state's 
greatest  men. 

Hon.  S.\muel  Wokd,  who  died  in  1907,  was  a  pioneer 
and  an  eminent  citizen  of  Helena,  who  came  to  the 
west  before  the  existence  of  Montana  as  a  state  or 
territory,  and  in  this  district  he  was  ever  a  leader  in 
affairs  of  moment.  His  ancestors  were  among  the 
early  settlers  of  South  Carolina  who  came  from  Scot- 
land previous  to  the  American  Revolution.  From  two 
brothers  of  the  name,  sprang  the  Words  now  scattered 
throughout  Virginia  and  other  southern  states. 

Samuel  Word  was  the  son  of  William  and  Susan 
Boyd  (Banton)  Word.  The  father  was  born  in  Powell's 
Valley,  Teimessee,  in  1808,  and  in  early  manhood  re- 
moved from  that  state  into  Knox  county,  Kentucky, 
where  he  married,  and  in  that  county  Samuel  Word 
was  born  at  Barboursville,  on  January  19,  1837.  The 
Word  familv  then  went  to  Somerset,  Pulaski  county, 
and   subsequently  in    1856  to   Kansas,   later   moving  on 


892 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


to  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  and  there  the  father  died  when 
he  was  seventy-three  years  of  age.  His  widow  sur- 
vived him  for  a  brief  period,  and  was  of  the  same  age 
as  her  husband  was  at  death  when  she  passed  away. 
William  Word  was  a  farmer  by  occupation  and  both  he 
and  his  wife  were  faithful  adherents  of  the  faith  of 
Alexander  Campbell,  the  founder  of  the  Christian 
church,   of  which   they  were   members. 

Samuel  Word,  their  son,  received  educational  ad- 
vantages of  a  somewhat  meagre  nature,  due  to  the 
undeveloped  educational  system  prevailing  in  our 
country  in  his  youth,  but  he  was  naturally  studious, 
and  early  in  life  displayed  a  strong  tendency  toward 
the  law.  In  time  he  entered  the  office  of  Andrew  J". 
James,  afterwards  attorney-general  of  Kentucky,  and 
though  he  studied  diligently,  he  found  himself  handi 
capped  as  much  by  his  lack  of  earlier  education  as 
by  his  limited  financial  means.  He  was  sufficiently 
grounded  in  the  rudiments  of  education,  however,  that 
he  found  it  possible  to  further  his  own  fortunes  by 
teaching  those  less  advanced  than  himself,  and  after 
teaching  for  a  considerable  period,  he  was  able  to 
enter  Bethany  College,  in  Virginia,  where  he  applied 
himself  so  assiduously  that  his  health  failed  him  under 
the  strain.  After  a  season  of  rest  at  home,  he  again 
entered  upon  his  legal  studies,  entering  the  office  of 
Silas  Woodson,  afterwards  governor  of  Missouri.  •  Un- 
der the  able  preceptorship  of  Mr.  Woodson  he  con- 
tinued with  his  studies  until  1858,  which  year  found 
him  qualified  to  enter  upon  the  active  practice  of  his 
profession,  and  he  located  in  Oregon,  Holt  county, 
Missouri.  He  formed  a  partnership  with  Col.  James 
Foster  and  soon  was  in  command  of  a  flourishing  prac- 
tice. It  was  here  that  he  met  and  married  Miss  Sarah 
Margaret  Foster.  She  was  a  native  of  Clay  county, 
Missouri,  of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry,  her  father  having 
been  a  native  of  Ireland  and  her  mother,  who  was  Miss 
Helen  J.  Thompson  prior  to  her  marriage,  being  of 
Scotch  descent.  Four  children  were  born  to  Samuel 
and  Sarah  M.  Word ;  William  F.,  a  prominent  min- 
ing engineer  of  Helena ;  Robert  Lee,  an  attorney  and 
ex-judge  of  the  supreme  court;  Charles  F.,  an  attorney 
and  May. 

Shortly  after  his  marriage  Mr.  Word  started  for 
the  west,  bent  upon  success  and  firmly  convinced  that 
in  this  as  yet  but  partially  explored  country  there  were 
opportunities  in  multitude  for  the  ambitious  man.  This 
was  in  1863,  at  a  time  when  Montana  was  yet  embraced 
by  the  territory  of  Idaho,  and  to  Alder  Gulch,  famous 
in  mining  history,  Mr.  Word  made  his  way.  He  engaged 
promptly  in  mining  ventures,  but  a  brief  season  was 
sufficient  to  convince  him  that  he  could  make  more 
rapid  progress  by  means  of  his  profession  than  was 
possible  to  him  in  the  prospecting  business.  This 
willingness  to  "make  haste  slowly"  proved  to  be  the 
foundation  of  his  ultimate  splendid  success.  One  year 
in  the  practice  of  law  in  Alder  Gulch  was  a  sufficient 
"try  out"  of  the  west  for  Mr.  Word,  and  he  accord- 
ingly returned  to  Missouri,  settled  up  his  affairs  in 
that   state,   and  brought   his   wife  to  Virginia   City. 

It  was  in  1865  that  Mr.  Word  was  appointed  by 
Governor  Edgerton  territorial  prosecuting  attorney  to 
fill  an  unexpired  term  in  the  first  judicial  district. 
His  abilities  for  the  office  were  soon  made  manifest 
in  a  most  practical  way,  and  he  was  later  elected  reg- 
ularly to  the  place,  filling  the  position  for  a  two  year 
term.  In  addition  to  his  legal  activities,  it  is  freely 
asserted  by  men  of  prominence  in  Helena  and  there- 
about that  Mr.  Word  was  one  who  imparted  great 
impetus  to  the  mining  industry  in  the  territory  in 
1884-5,  and  it  was  he  who  conceived  the  idea  of  plac- 
ing the  stock  of  the  famous  Drum  Lummon  mine  on 
the  market.  Furthermore,  to  Mr.  Word  is  due  much 
of  the  credit  for  the  early  development  of  the  coal 
industry  in  Montana,  as  he,  in  company  with  Hon. 
Walter  Cooper  and  others,  opened  its  first  coal  fields. 


They  obtained  the  Rocky  Fork  coal  fields  and  were 
associated  in  the  industry  with  the  following  well-known 
men :  Samuel  T.  Hauser,  Henry  Villard,  Thomas 
F.  Oakes,  then  president  of  the  Northern  Pacific;  James 
L.  Piatt  and  James  B.  Hubbell.  A  railroad  of  fifty 
miles  in  length  was  built  from  Laurel  to  Red  Lodge 
where  the  coal  fields  were  located,  and  while  other 
coal  fields  have  since  been  .developed,  theirs  was 
the  initial  enterprise  of  that  nature  and  the  first  in 
the  development  of  one  of  the  great  natural  industries 
of  the  state. 

Mr.  Word  was  always  an  active  Democrat,  and  in 
the  various  campaigns  in  which  that  party  figured,  he 
has  done  much,  both  on  the  stump  and  in  party  coun- 
cils,  to   bring   about    its    success. 

In  1897  Mr.  Word  was  sent  to  Dawson  City,  Alaska, 
as  counsel  of  the  North  American  Transportation  Com- 
pany, where  he  continued  until  June,  1900,  later  going 
to  Cape  Nome,  where  he  was  located  for  some  little 
time.  Mr.  Word  was  a  member  of  the  house  of  rep- 
resentatives (fourth  and  extra  sessions  1867).  Member 
council  sixth  session  1869-70.  Member  house  ninth 
session  1876.  Member  tenth  session  1877.  Speaker 
eleventh  and  extra  sessions  1879.  Territorial  legislative 
assemblies.  Member  Constitutional  convention  1886. 
President  of  Society  of  Montana  Pioneers  1891-2.  He 
was  a  Mason  of  high  degree,  being  a  member  of  all  its 
branches,  and  he  was  Grand  Master  of  Masons  of 
Montana  in  1887.  He  was  a  splendid  type  of  the  best 
citizenship  of  the  west,  and  as  a  man  of  big  afifairs, 
exceptional  executive  ability  and  the  highest  integrity, 
he  won  for  himself  a  name  second  to  none  among 
those  of  the  pioneers  of  his  time  in  the  state  of 
Montana.     Died  at  Helena,  Montana,  September,  1903. 

Robert  Lee  Word.  Born  in  Virginia  City,  Montana, 
June  22,  1866.  Parents  were  Samuel  Word  and 
Sarah  M.  Word.  Went  to  Ann  Arbor  high  school. 
Philips  Exeter  Academy  and  Columbia  Law  School. 
Admitted  to  the  bar  in  1889.  Clerk  of  the  supreme 
court  from  1887  to  1889.  Member  of  the  law  firm 
of  Word,  Smith  &  Word  from  1890  to  1892.  Mem- 
ber of  the  law  firm  of  Smith  &  Word  from  1892  to 
1896.  Appointed  associate  justice  of  the  supreme 
court  of  the  state  of  Montana  to  succeed  Wm.  H. 
Hunt  in  June.  1900.  Married  November  14,  1900. 
Has  four  children,  three  boys  and  one  girl.  Member 
of  the  law  firm  of  Word  &  Word  from  1901  to  191 1; 
which  firm  was  dissolved  by  the  death  of  Chas.  F. 
Word  in  June,  191 1.  Since  then  has  practiced  law 
alone. 

William  Lowe.  Hailed  everywhere  by  his  fellows 
as  the  "Grand  Old  Pioneer,"  upright,  honorable,  splen- 
did, a  man  among  men,  one  cannot  mention  the  name 
of  William  Lowe  anywhere  in  the  state  of  Montana 
without  bringing  forth  words  of  such  praise  as  it  is  not 
often  given  men  to  listen  to,  and  expressions  of  grief 
that  in  its  genuineness  is  the  greatest  proof  of  the  af- 
fection and  esteem  in  which  this  fine  old  citizen  of 
Montana  was  held.  He  has  gone  from  among  his  old 
friends,  but  the  strength  and  power  of  his  memory  is 
undiminished,  and  his  influence  is  still  felt  among 
those  whom  he  left  behind.  It  is  r.ot  often  that  one 
has  the  opportunity  of  writing  the  life  of  such  a  man. 
A  fine  business  man,  an  earnest,  energetic  citizen, 
active  in  all  movements  for  the  betterment  of  his 
section  of  the  country,  it  is  not  thus  that  he  is  re- 
membered. It  is  his  personal  character  that  made 
him  so  well  beloved,  and  so  influential.  People  may 
forget  that  he  built  uo  a  great  business  from  practically 
nothing,  but  they  will  never  forget  his  generosity,  his 
little,  almost  unseen  deeds  of  kindness,  his  rigid  stand 
for  truth  and  honor  and  justice  tempered  with  mercy. 
With  men  like  William  Lowe  behind  them,  men  who 
stood    for    all   that    is    highest    and    noblest    in    human 


///^ 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


893 


nature,  just  the  inspiration  that  is  to  be  gained  from 
the  knowledge  that  they  are  descended  trom  such  a 
race  of  men  ought  to  give  the  men  of  Montana  su- 
perior advantage  over  the  men  of  most  sections  of  the 
country. 

William  Lowe  was  a  native  of  England,  having  been 
born  there  on  the  17th  of  February,  1829.  His  par- 
ents came  to  America  and  settled  in  Rhode  Island  when 
he  was  a  tiny  child.  Here  William  grew  to  manhood, 
attending  the  public  schools  of  Providence,  where  his 
parents  lived,  and  imbibing  all  the  sturdy  and  vigorous 
moral  and  physical  vitality  that  was  in  the  very  air 
of  that  old  settlement.  After  the  completion  of  his 
education  he  learned  the  tinner's  trade,  and  this  busi- 
ness or  modifications  of  it,  he  was  destined  to  follow 
more  or  less  throughout  the  whole  of  his  life.  He  fol- 
lowed his  trade  for  a  time  in  Providence,  and  here  he 
married  and  began  his  wedded  life.  His  first  child 
was  born  here,  but  died  in  infancy.  In  1858,  following 
the  same  instinct  that  led  his  parents  to  cross  the 
ocean,  he  crossed  the  great  stretch  of  country  to  the 
Mississippi  river  and  settled  in  Iowa,  at  Canton,  in 
Jones  county.  Here  he  set  up  a  hardware  and  tinning 
business,  in  which  he  met  with  considerable  success. 
He  operated  this  business  until  1863.  when  he  made  an- 
other westward  move  and  came  to  the  territory  of  Mon- 
tana. Those  days  might  be  called  pre-pioneer  days, 
for  there  were  scarcely  any  white  men  in  the  country 
at  all,  and  these  were  to  be  found  in  the  mining  camps, 
save  for  the  few  traders  and  trappers  who  were  the 
first  to  penetrate  the  fastnesses  of  Montana's  moun- 
tains. The  plains  were  covered  with  bufifalo  and  the 
mountains  were  teeming  with  Indians.  It  was  not 
hard  to  live,  for  the  country  swarmed  with  wild  game 
of  all  sorts,  and  in  fact  conditions  of  life  were  much 
like  those  of  the  first  settlers  in  New  England  and 
Virginia  in  the  days  when  America  was  a  new  and 
practically   unexplored   country. 

Mr.  Lowe  went  to  work  in  the  mines  near  Virginia 
City,  which  w'as  only  a  rough  mining  camp,  and  during 
the  next  eighteen  years  he  resided  in  that  part  of 
Montana.  During  all  of  this  time  he  was  principally 
engaged  in  mining  and  prospecting  for  indeed  there 
was  little  else  to  do  in  the  country.  He  had  enough 
experiences  to  fill  many  books  and  to  give  texts  for 
many  a  story  that  would  be  decried  as  the  merest 
fiction  and  as  impossible  even  in  yellow-backed  liter- 
ature. He  was  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Colonel 
Sanders  when  the  latter  was  federal  or  territorial 
judge  for  Montana.  ?Ie  witnessed  the  first  lynching 
that  ever  took  place  in  the  territory,  the  man  being 
put  to  death  by  tne  Vigilance  Committee,  which  had 
been  organized  to  see  that  justice  was  administered,  and 
who  took  summary  means  of  executing  it.  The  law 
breakers  at  that  time  could  keep  bevond  the  pale  of  the 
law._  of  which  indeed  there  was  very  little,  and  the 
Vigilance  Committee  was  a  very  necessary  institu- 
tion. 

In  1881  Mr.  Lowe  came  to  Dawson  countv,  and 
settled  at  Glendive.  where  he  remained  for  tlie  rest 
of  his  life.  He  opened  a  hardware  store  and  tinning 
shop  here,  in  a  tiny  little  lo<r  building.  As  the  town 
grew  Mr  Lowe's  patronage  became  larger,  and  he 
was  enabled  to  gradually  increase  his  facilities,  but 
on  his  arrival  Glendive  was  nothing  but  a  log  trad- 
ing post.,  and  his  stock  in  trade  was  very  meager.  At 
the  time  of  his  death  he  owned  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  complete  stocks  of  hardware  to  be  found  in 
Montana  and  this  was  housed  in  a  fine  two-story  brick 
building.  This  large  business  was  partly  due  to  the 
growth  of  the  town  and  the  greater  demand  for 
what  he  had  to  ofifer.  but  his  personal  popularity  had 
a  great  deal  to  do  with  his  prosperity,  and  there  was 
not  a  man  in  the  whole  country  round  about  who 
did  not  know  that  when  they  traded  with   Mr.   Lowe 


they  were  sure  to  get  honest  values  and  the  best  that 
was  to  be  had  in   the  hardware   line. 

Mr.  Lowe  was  married  in  1857,  at  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  to  Helen  Baird.  Seven  children  were  born 
to  them,  two  of  whom  died  in  infancy.  Edwin  died 
at  the  age  of  fourteen  and  Esther,  at  the  age  of  twenty. 
The  living  children  are  Mrs.  F,  ^nk  Fleming,  of 
Glendive,  Montana,  and  the  two  sons,  Guy  R.  and 
Ray  G.,  who,  succeeding  their  father  in  the  business, 
are  keeping  up  the  standard  set  by  him.  They  are 
known  throughout  Dawson  county  as  straightfor- 
ward, reliable  business  men,  and  the  business  which 
their  father  founded  bids  fair  to  be  as  prosperous  in 
the  hands  of  the  sons  as  it  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
father.  It  is  no  more  than  people  expected,  however, 
for  a  son  necessarily  inherits  some  of  the  traits  of 
his  parents,  and  in  this  case  the  boys  had  the  advantage 
of  a  wise  and  careful  training.  Their  mother  was  a 
delightful  old  gentlewoman,  to  use  an  old  fashioned 
term  which  suits  her  perfectly,  refined  and  gentle,  and 
she  was  the  devoted  wife  and  mother  for  many  years, 
dying  in   1885. 

In  politics  Mr.  Lowe  was  a  stanch  Republican,  and 
his  sons  have  here  also  followed  in  his  footsteps. 
Among  his  papers  were  found  some  curious  relics  that 
date  back  to  the  early  days  of  this  party,  among  them 
being  a  newspaper  bearing  the  date  Thursday,  July  2, 
1863,  and  printed  in  Vicksburg,  Mississippi,  on  the 
back  of  a  piece  of  wall  paper.  In  fraternal  affairs  Mr. 
Lowe  was  a  Mason  of  long  standing,  having  become  a 
member  of  the  lodge  at  Canton,  Iowa,  before  coming 
west  and  always  holding  his  membership  in  that  chap- 
ter. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Lowe  occurred  on  the  26th  of 
May,  1912,  and  at  the  time  he  was  the  oldest  resident 
of  Dawson  county.  So  passed  from  among  us  one  of 
the  noble  spirits  of  the  earth,  one  of  the  men  who 
make  life  seem  worth  while  and  who  inspire  others  to 
live  up  to  their  highest  ideals  and  forget  that  "money 
talks,"  for  instance,  or  any  other  of  the  stock  phrases 
that  make  up  the  practical  world's  philosophy.  Mr. 
Lowe  proved  that  one  could  make  a  comfortable  living 
honestly  and  the  regard  with  which  he  is  spoken  of  l)y 
every  one  shows  that  the  lessons  taught  by  his  life 
will   not   soon   be    forgotten. 

William  B.  Carter.  For  a  half  century  William 
B.  Carter  has  been  identified  with  the  growth  and 
development  of  this  section  of  Montana,  having  located 
here  when  the  present  state  was  yet  a  portion  of  Idaho. 
Since  1868  he  has  been  devoted  to  ranching,  and  has 
in  the  years  that  have  elapsed  acquired  one  of  the  most 
valuable  ranching  properties  in  the  state.  He  is  a 
man  who  has  seen  western  life  in  all  its  varied  phases, 
from  the  days  when  the  new  settlers  lived  in  momentary 
expectation  of  Indian  raids  and  depredations  of  law- 
less characters  of  every  sort  to  the  days  of  comparative 
quiet  and  the  present  even  trend  of  events  in  the  great 
western  state. 

William  B.  Carter  was  born  in  Geauga  county,  Ohio, 
near  Cleveland,  on  April  23.  1839.  and  is  the  son  of 
J.  H.  Carter  and  his  wife,  Caroline  G.  C.  (Burgess) 
Carter,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of  Vermont.  The 
father  died  in  Ohio  at  the  age  of  seventy-five  years 
and  the  mother  in  the  same  state  when  she  was  eighty- 
seven  years  old.  The  country  schools  of  his  native  com- 
munity gave  to  William  Carter  such  schooling  as  he 
was  permitted  to  receive  as  a  boy,  and  he  was  employed 
about  the  farm  home  until  he  was  about  twenty-two 
years  of  age,  when  in  1863  he  started  for  California. 
He  stopped  in  Salt  Lake,  L^tah,  on  the  way  out,  and  on 
July  I,  1863,  reached  Baniiack.  Soon  thereafter  he 
went  to  Alder  Gulch,  arriving  at  Virginia  City  in  the 
same  month.  He  on  the  evening  of  the  day  he  arrived 
there  obtained  employment,  receiving  five  dollars  a  night 
for  his  work  on  the  claim  of  Colonel  W^oods,  one  of  the 


894 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


well-known  miners  and  prospectors,  who  was  also 
known  as  a  preacher  in  the  mining  camp,  where  he  held 
regular  Sunday  services.  Here  Mr.  Carter  worked 
for  one  hundred  nights,  then  returned  to  Salt  Lake 
City  and  purchased  three  yoke  of  cattle  and  a  wagon, 
and  brought  a  load  of  provisions  to  Virginia  City.  He 
arrived  with  his  load  of  supplies  on  Christmas  day, 
1863,  and  from  then  until  1867  he  continued  in  the 
freighting  business.  Since  that  time  he  has  given  his 
energies  to  the  stock  business,  sheep,  cattle  and  horses 
being  the  products  of  his  ranch.  He  has  a  fine  place 
of  sixteen  hundred  acres  in  the  vicinity  of  Dillon, 
where  he  lived  with  his  family  until  1882,  in  which  year 
they  moved  into  the  town  of  Dillon,  and  here  have 
resided  ever  since. 

It  is  needless  to  add  that  Mr.  Carter  has  enjoyed  a 
splendid  success  in  his  operations.  His  present  circum- 
stances speak  for  his  business  prosperity,  and  he  is 
everywhere  regarded  as  one  of  the  linancially  respons- 
ible men  of  the  city  and  county.  In  the  early  years  of 
Mr.  Carter's  operations  in  Montana  he  had  a  partner 
in  the  person  of  B.  C.  Bennett,  their  association  con- 
tinuing from  1863  to  1867.  Their  relations  all  this  time 
were  of  the  most  amicable  order,  and  were  only  discon- 
tinued when  Mr.  Bennett  returned  to  his  old  home  in 
Ohio,  married  and  settled  in  his  former  home,  dying- 
there  in   1895. 

On  July  4,  1868,  I\Ir.  Carter  was  married  to  Miss 
Anna  Selway,  who  was  born  in  Racine,  Wisconsin,  and 
came  to  Montana  in  1864.  She  is  one  of  the  pioneer 
women  of  Montana,  and  is  the  mother  of  seven  chil- 
dren, as  follows :  Carrie  E.,  Ada  B.,  Frederick  W.,  Lee 
S.,  Guy  J.,  Florence  C.  and  Anna  B. 

Orson  N.  Newman.  Probably  within  the  confines  of 
the  Yellowstone  Valley  there  is  no  family  better  known 
than  that  of  Newman.  Certain  it  is  that  its  members 
have  been  closely  identified  with  the  almost  phenomenal 
growth  and  development  of  this  section  since  earliest 
pioneer  days,  and  many  now  bearing  the  naine  are  hold- 
ing positions  of  importance  in  public  and  private  life. 
Since  colonial  times  in  America  members  of  the  New- 
man family  have  been  leaders  in  the  settlement  of  new 
sections  of  the  country,  and  among  the  representatives 
of  the  name  in  Montana  the  venerable  Orson  N.  New- 
man, of  Billings,  stands  pre-eminent.  He  was  born  in 
Orleans  county.  New  York,  February  15,  1830,  and  is  a 
son  of  Joel  and  Hannah  (Lyon)  Nevvinan. 

The  Newman  family  is  traced  back  to  colonial  times, 
when  three  brothers  of  the  name  came  to  America,  and 
some  of  their  descendants  fought  as  soldiers  in  the 
Continental  army  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  as  did 
also  members  of  the  Lyons  family.  Joel  Newman  was 
born  in  Delaware  county,  New  York,  March  22,  1788, 
and  died  October  6,  1866.  As  a  young  man  he  traveled 
to  Orleans  county,  where  he  hewed  him  a  home  from 
the  wilderness,  and  in  1830  he  went  to  Wayne  county, 
settling  in  Plymouth  township,  where  the  rest  of  his 
life  was  spent  in  agricultural  pursuits.  Li  political 
matters  he  was  an  old-line  Whig  until  the  year  1855, 
at  which  time  he  joined  the  Republican  party.  During  a 
part  of  the  War  of  1812  he  fought  as  a  soldier  in  the 
American  army.  He  married  Hannah  Lyon,  who  was 
born  in  New  jersey,  June  18,  1794,  and  died  February 
3,  1853,  and  to  this  union  there  were  born  five  daughters 
and  seven  sons,  the  four  youngest  sons  still  surviving: 
Timothy,  who  resides  in  Clinton  county,  Michigan; 
Orson  N. ;  Hiram,  living  in  Polk  county,  Oregon;  and 
Albert,  a  resident  of  California. 

After  securing  a  common  school  education  in  his 
native  state,  Orson  N.  Newman  left  home  at  the  age  of 
nineteen  years  and  went  to  work  for  wages,  his  first 
employment  being  at  clearing  land.  He  subsequently 
spent  eight  years  in  the  lumber  business,  working  in 
the  woods  of  northern  Michigan,  on  the  Muskegon  river, 
and  while  in  that   locality,  April  3,   1855,  was  married. 


During  the  spring  of  1858  he  left  Michigan  with  his 
wife  and  two  children,  crossed  Lake  Michigan  by  boat  to 
Chicago,  went  thence  by  rail  to  St.  Louis,  and  by  steam- 
ship up  the  Alissouri  river  to  Atchison,  Kansas.  At 
that  point  they  took  a  mule  team  to  America,  ninety 
miles  west  of  Atchison,  this  being  the  extreme  western 
frontier  town  at  that  time.  There  Mr.  Newinan  took  up 
land  and  spent  four  years  in  improving  his  property, 
and  had  a  fair  measure  of  success,  although  of  con- 
veniences there  were  few  and  neighbors  even  less.  Of 
Indians  and  buffalo,  however,  there  were  a  plentiful 
quantity.  On  July  2,  1862,  Mr.  Newman  left  Kansas  by 
ox-team  overland  to  Camp  Collins,  Colorado,  where  he 
spent  the  fall  and  winter  of  1862-3,  and  in  the  spring 
of  the  latter  year  he  and  his  family  joined  a  freight 
train  for  East  Bannack,  territory  of  Montana,  at  which 
point  the  train  broke  up.  The  members  of  the  Newman 
family  spent  one  week  at  that  place  and  then  mo\ed  on 
to  Alder  Gulch,  and  at  the  present  site  of  Virginia  Cit> 
Mr.  Newman  was  engaged  in  digging  a  drain,  at  six 
dollars  per  day.  Mrs.  Newman  assisted  her  husband 
materially  at  this  time  by  selling  milk  from  the  cows 
that  they  had  brought  through  from  Kansas,  as  well  as 
disposing  of  bread  which  she  had  baked,  and  after  they 
had  remained  in  Alder  Gulch  for  six  weeks  they  moved 
on  to  Madison  Valley,  where  Mr.  Newman  took  up  a 
hay  claim.  At  that  time  he  was  compelled  to  pay 
twenty-live  dollars  apiece  for  scythes,  while  help  was 
not  to  be  had  cheaper  than  five  dollars  per  day,  but 
(luring  the  si.x  years  that  he  remained  in  that  locality 
he  met  with  success,  and  built  a  station  known  as  Elk- 
horn  Ranch  Farm  Roadhouse.  During  i86g  the  family 
started  overland  for  California,  and  in  October  of  that 
year  arrived  at  Santiago,  where  they  remained  for  one 
year.  In  1870  they  went  to  that  portion  of  San  Ber- 
nardino county  which  has  recently  been  made  River- 
side count}-,  and  there,  in  November,  1S70,  Mr.  Newman 
assisted  in  nutting  in  the  first  irrigation  ditch  in  that 
portion  of  the  country.  He  located  ten  acres  of  land 
and  planted  grapes  and  oranges,  I)ut  in  May,  1873,  with 
a  four-horse  team,  left  the  Golden  state  to  travel  over- 
land to  Salem,  Oregon.  During  the  winter  of  1873-4 
he  was  engaged  in  contracting  and  cutting  timber  for 
sawmills,  and  he  then  went  to  the  Snohomish  river, 
Washington  territory-,  on  Puget  Sound,  about  fifty  miles 
from  Seattle.  There  he  and  his  two  sons,  Charles  H. 
and  Edwin  M.,  spent  the  summer  of  1874  working  in  a 
lumber  camp,  and  the  four-horse  team  was  again  put 
into  cornmission,  the  family  starting  for  Portland.  Ore- 
gon, over  the  Barlow  Pass,  into  the  Walla  Walla 
country,  and  on  to  Palousc,  just  over  the  line  from 
Idaho.  After  passing  the  latter  point  they  were  snow- 
bound in  western  Idaho  and  were  compelled  to  spend 
the  winter  there,  building  a  crude  cabin  in  which  they 
lived  until  the  spring  of  1875.  At  that  time  they  came 
through  to  the  old  family  homestead  on  Meadow  Creek, 
Montana,  and  after  spending  three  months  there  moved 
on  to  Bozeman,  where  they  spent  the  winter.  In  the 
spring  of  1876  they  engaged  in  farming  in  the  Gallatin 
Valley,  but  only  remained  two  years,  when,  deciding  to 
again  seek  new  territory,  they  loaded  a  large  wagon 
with  provisions  and  seed,  and  with  three  yoke  of  cattle 
came  overland  to  the  Yellowstone  Valley  and  located 
near  Coulson,  now  a  deserted  villase  about  two  miles 
from  the  present  citv  of  Billings.  They  arrived  March 
16,  1878,  and  the  father  and  sons  at  once  began  farm- 
ing together,  but  later  this  partnership  was  discontinued 
when  the  sons  engaged  in  the  sheeo  business.  Mr. 
Newman  resided  on  the  old  farm  until  1899,  and  since 
that  time  has  lived  somewhat  retired,  his  winters  being 
spent  on  the  Pacific  coast,  principally  in  southern  Cali- 
fornia. He  is  a  Socialist  in  his  political  proclivities, 
Init  has  never  been  an  office  seeker,  although  at  dif- 
ferent times  he  has  been  chosen  to  fill  public  positions. 
In  1896  he  was  elected  county  commissioner  and  served 
as  chairman  of  the  board  up  to  October,  1899,  when  he 


(^•\\,   \V5^A/>orv\rOWvv 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


895 


resigned.  Me  was  appointed  justice  of  the  peace  by 
Hon.  Sidney  Edgerton,  the  first  governor  of  Montana, 
but  declined  the  office,  and  later  was  appointed  to  the 
same  office  by  the  county  commissioners  of  Custer 
county.  All  of  Mr.  Newman's  undertakings  have  met 
with  a  full  measure  of  success,  and  throughout  his  life 
he  has  fostered  and  developed  operations  that  have 
helped  to  build  up  and  improve  the  community  where- 
ever  he  has  resided.  In  his  declining  years  he  is  en- 
joying the  fruits  of  a  career  that  has  been  filled  with 
kind  and  useful  deeds,  and  he  may  rest  secure  in  the 
knowledge  that  he  has  the  regard,  the  esteem  and  the 
full  confidence  of  all  with  whom  he  has  come  in  con- 
tact. 

On  April  3,  1855,  Mr.  Newman  was  united  in  mar- 
riage with  Miss  Elizabeth  Matilda  Tripp,  at  Croton, 
Newavgo  county,  Michigan.  She  was  born  in  Ontario, 
Canada,  daughter  of  David  and  Lena  (Clapp)  Tripp,  the 
former  a  native  of  New  York  state,  who  died  in  Mar- 
shall county,  Kansas,  when  seventy  years  of  age ;  and 
the  latter  a  native  of  Ontario,  who  is  also  dead. 
They  had  a  son  and  a  daughter,  the  former  still  living, 
while  Mrs.  Newman  passed  away  August  18,  1886. 
Eleven  children  were  born  to  Orson  N.  and  Elizabeth 
M.  (Tripp)  Newman,  as  follows:  Charles  H.,  of 
Billings ;  Edwin  M.,  living  in  Yellowstone  county,  one 
and  one-half  miles  south  of  Billings,  who  is  married 
and  has  five  children;  William  M.,  who  is  engaged  in 
farming  in  Yellowstone  county;  Jane,  the  wife  of  Henry 
McKinsey,  living  at  East  Boulder,  Sweet  Grass  county, 
Montana,  who  has  eight  children ;  Asa  D.,  an  extensive 
sheep  raiser,  and  the  owner  of  a  large  ranch  in  Blue 
Creek,  Yellowstone  valley,  who  is  married  and  has  two 
children ;  Mary,  the  wife  of  W.  J.  Scott,  of  Billings, 
who  has  two  children ;  Albert  A.,  of  Billings ;  Abe,  who 
lost  his  life  in  a  railroad  accident  in  1899,  being  at  that 
time  twenty-seven  years  of  age ;  Martha,  who  died 
when  seven  years  of  age ;  Mark,  the  owner  of  a  fine 
cattle  and  sheep  ranch  on  Blue  Creek,  Yellowstone 
county,  who  is  married  and  has  three  children;  and 
Burton,  who  died  in  infancy. 

Ch.\rles  H.  Newman.  A  member  of  an  old  and  hon- 
ored pioneer  familv  and  himself  a  resident  of  the  Yel- 
lowstone Valley  for  nearly  thirty-five  years,  Charles  H. 
Newman,  chairman  of  the  board  of  county  commis- 
sioners of  Yellow c^tone  county,  has  been  closely  identi- 
fied with  a  number  of  enterprises  that  have  gone  to 
make  this  one  of  the  centers  of  industrial  activity  in 
the  west.  The  greater  part  of  Mr.  Newman's  boyhood 
and  youth  was  spent  in  travel,  and  with  his  parents  he 
visited  a  number  of  sections  of  the  country  when  they 
were  still  in  their  infancy,  but  since  coming  to  Montana 
has  made  this  state  his  home,  and  has  been  identified 
with  its  interests  from  the  days  when  he  engaged  in 
hunting  and  trapping  for  a  living  to  the  present  time, 
when  he  is  known  as  one  of  the  leading  sheepmen  of  the 
valley.  Mr.  Newman  was  born  October  22,  1856,  in 
Newaygo  county.  Michigan,  and  is  a  son  of  Orson  N. 
and   Elizabeth   Matilda    (Tripp)    Newman. 

Mr.  Newman  is  a  direct  descendant  of  early  Colonial 
settlers  who  fought  as  soldiers  in  the  Continental  army 
duriny'  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  and  his  paternal 
grandfather,  Joel  Newman,  was  an  American  soldier 
during  the  War  of  1812-14.  The  latter  was  born  in 
Delaware  county.  New  York,  March  22,  1788,  and  died 
October  6.  1866.  and  his  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden 
name  of  Hannah  T,yon,  was  born  in  New  Jersev.  June 
t8.  1794,  and  died  February  3,  1853.  They  had  five 
daughters  and  seven  sons,  four  of  the  latter  being  alive 
at  this  time:  Timothy,  of  Clinton  county.  Michigan; 
Orson  N. ;  Hiram,  who  lives  in  Polk  county,  Oregon; 
and  Albert,  who  makes  his  home  in  California.  Joel 
Newman  first  made  a  home  for  himself  in  the  wilder- 
ness of  Delaware  county,  New  York,  and  also  was  a 
pioneer  of  Wyoming  county,  where  be  spent  the  rest  of 


his  life  as  a  farmer  of  Plymouth  township.  In  1855  he 
gave  up  the  politics  of  the  Whig  party  for  those  of  the 
newly-organized  Republicans,  with  which  organization 
he  was  identified  during  the  remainder  of  his  career. 

Orson  N.  Newman  received  a  good  education  for  his 
time  and  locality,  and  at  the  age  of  nineteen  years 
started  out  to  make  his  own  way  in  the  world.  He 
spent  some  time  in  working  at  land-clearing,  but  he 
subsequently  went  to  the  lumber  woods  of  northern 
Michigan,  and  tnere  spent  eight  years.  He  was  mar- 
ried there  April  3,  1855,  at  Croton,  Newaygo  county, 
Michigan,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Matilda  Tripp,  who  was 
born  in  Ontario,  Canada,  daughter  of  David  and  Lena 
(Clapo)  Tripp,  the  former  a  native  of  New  York  state 
and  the  later  of  Ontario,  both  of  whom  are  deceased. 
Mrs.  Newman  passed  away  August  18,  1886,  having 
been  the  mother  of  eleven  children,  as  follows :  Charles 
H. ;  Edwin  M.,  who  lives  one  and  one-half  miles  south 
of  Billings ;  William  Marvin,  also  engaged  in  farming 
in  the  Yellowstone  Valley;  Jane,  the  wife  of  Henry 
McKinsey,  of  East  Boulder,  Sweet  Grass  county;  Asa 
D.,  an  extensive  sheep  raiser  of  Billings,  who  owns  a 
valuable  ranch  south  of  Billings,  on  Blue  Creek;  Mary, 
who  married  W.  J.  Scott,  of  Billings ;  Albert  A. ;  Abe, 
who  met  his  death  in  a  railroad  accident  when  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age,  in  1899;  Martha,  who  died  when 
seven  years  of  age ;  Mark,  the  owner  of  a  fine  cattle 
and  sheep  ranch  on  Blue  Creek,  Yellowstone  county; 
and  Burton,  who  died  in  infancy.  During  the  spring  of 
1858  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Newman  and  their  two  children  left 
Michigan  and  went  by  way  of  Chicago,  St.  Louis  and 
Atchison,  Kansas,  to  America,  the  frontier  of  the  west, 
a  town  about  ninety  miles  from  Atchison.  After  four 
years  spent  in  farming  the  family  moved  on  to  Camp 
Collins,  Colorado,  and  in  the  spring  of  1863  a  freight 
train  bound  for  East  Bannack,  Montana,  was  joined. 
The  train  broke  up  at  that  point,  but  after  a  stay  of  a 
week  the  Newmans  pushed  on  to  Alder  Gulch,  and  on 
the  present  site  of  Virginia  City  the  father  was  engaged 
in  digging  a  ditch,  while  the  mother  added  to  the  income 
by  selling  milk  and  baking  home-made  bread  for  the 
miners  of  the  vicinity.  Mr.  Newman  was  paid  at  the 
rate  of  six  dollars  per  day  and  Mrs.  Newman  made 
nearly  as  much  by  her  industry,  and  after  six  weeks  they 
had  accumulated  enough  to  invest  in  a  hay  ranch  in 
the  Madison  Valley.  Although  he  was  obliged  to  pay 
a  salary  of  five  dollars  per  day  to  his  hay  cutters  and 
twenty-five  dollars  apiece  for  scythes,  Mr.  Newman  was 
able  to  make  m.oney,  and  he  there  built  a  station  known 
as  the  F.lkhorn  Ranch  Farm  Roadhouse,  which  was 
much  patronized  during  the  early  days.  During  1869 
the  family  started  overland  for  California,  and  in  Octo- 
ber of  that  year  arrived  at  Santiago,  where  they  re- 
mained for  one  year.  In  1870  they  went  to  what  is 
now  Riverside  (then  San  Bernardino)  county,  Cali- 
fornia, and  in  November  of  that  year  Mr.  Newman  as- 
sisted in  building  the  first  irrigation  ditch  in  that  county. 
He  also  experimented  with  grapes  and  oranges  on  a 
ten-acre  tract,  but  in  May,  1873,  with  a  four-horse  team, 
started  overland  for  Portland,  Oregon.  He  spent  the 
winter  of  1873-4  in  contracting  and  cutting  timber  for 
sawmills,  and  in  the  spring  went  to  Snohomish  river, 
about  fifty  miles  from  Seattle,  Washington,  where  he 
and  his  two  sons,  Charles  H.  and  Edwin  M.,  spent  the 
winter  of  1874  working  in  a  lumber  camp.  Still  un- 
satisfied with  their  location,  the  family  again  started  on 
its  journey,  aiming  to  go  to  Portland,  Oregon,  but  after 
going  through  the  Barlow  Pass  into  the  Walla  Walla 
territory,  and  on  to  Palouse.  were  snow-bound  in 
western  Idaho  and  compelled  to  build  a  cabin  in  which 
to  spend  the  winter.  In  the  spring  of  1875  they  again 
started  and  came  through  to  Alcadow  Creek,  Madison 
Valley,  Montana,  where  had  been  the  old  homestead 
years  before,  and  after  three  months  left  for  Bozeman. 
where  they  spent  the  following  winter.  The  spring  of 
1876  found  the  father  and  sons  engaged  in  farming  in 


896 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


the  Gallatin  Valley,  but  after  two  years  they  loaded  a 
large  wagon  with  provisions  and  seeds,  and  with  three 
yoke  of  oxen  came  overland  to  the  Yellowstone  Valley, 
locating  at  Coulson,  now  a  deserted  village  about  two 
miles  from  the  present  city  of  Billings.  The  father  and 
sons  were  engaged  in  farming  there  for  some  years,  but 
in  1899  Mr.  Newman  retired  from  business  activities, 
and  since  that  time  he  has  spent  his  winters  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  principally  in  southern  California.  He  is 
a  Socialist  in  his  poHtical  belief,  and  has  served  as  county 
commssioner  and  as  justice  of  the  peace,  although  he 
has  never  sought  and  often  declined  public  office.  He 
is  one  of  his  localitv's  most  highly  honored  citizens,  and 
is  esteemed  both  as  one  of  the  Yellowstone's  hardy  pio- 
neers, and  as  a  citizen  whose  activities  have  been  so 
directed  as  to  benefit  his  community. 

Charles  H.  Newman  secured  his  education  in  the 
public  schools  of  the  various  vicinities  in  which  the 
family  lived,  and  grew  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  continua 
industry  and  hard  labor.  With  his  parents  he  arrived 
in  the  Yellowstone  Valley,  March  16,  1878,  and  during 
the  first  four  or  five  years  he  was  engaged  in  hunting 
and  trapping  in  the  winter  months.  Money  at  that  time 
was  not  easily  obtained  and  work  was  a  scarce  com- 
modity, so  that  the  income  derived  from  the  hides  and 
pelts  obtained  by  the  young  men  added  appreciably  to 
the  family  resources.  He  worked  at  farming  with  his 
father  and  brother,  Edwin  M.,  during  the  summer 
months,  and  in  1886  purchased  700  head  of  sheep  with 
the  money  he  had  accumulated  during  his  many  years 
of  earnest,  energetic  endeavor.  Subsequently  his 
brother,  Asa  D.,  being  assisted  by  his  father,,  joined  him 
in  this  enterprise  and  for  some  years  they  continued  in 
the  sheep  business  as  partners.  Later  Mr.  Newman 
bought  the  old  homestead,  which  he  still  owns,  and  m 
1894  came  to  Billings,  having  been  appointed  deputy 
sheriff  of  Yellowstone  county.  He  served  in  that  office 
for  four  years  and  then  returned  to  the  old  homestead, 
but  in  1903  sold  his  sheep  and  engaged  in  farming.  This 
occupied  his  attention  until  1906,  in  which  year  he  was 
elected  county  commissioner,  and  in  1908  he  was  re- 
elected for  a  term  of  six  years.  Since  January  i,  1907, 
he  has  acted  as  chairman  of  the  board,  and  has  proven 
himself  in  every  way  an  efficient  official.  Mr.  Newman 
has  brought  an  enthusiasm  to  his  work  that  has  done 
much  to  advance  the  work  done  by  the  board,  and  at 
present  is  active  in  the  erection  of  the  fine  county  house 
three  miles  from  Billings.  He  gives  his  support  to  the 
Republican  party,  its  principles  and  its  candidates,  and 
is  considered  an  important  factor  in  the  Republican 
organization  in  the  valley.  Fraternally  he  is  connected 
with  Rathbone  Lodge,  No.  28,  K.  of  P. ;  Camp  No.  6269, 
Woodmen  of  the  World;  Billings  Lodge,  No.  394,  B. 
P.  O.  E. 

On  January  12,  1898,  Mr.  Newman  was  united  in  mar- 
riage with  Miss  Cinderella  Walk,  who  was  born  in  Har- 
rison county,  Indiana,  daughter  of  Joseph  A.  and  Olive 
(Crandell)  Walk,  natives  of  Indiana.  Mr.  Walk  was 
born  February  16,  1814,  and  on  September  6,  1837,  was 
married  to  Olive  Crandell,  who  was  born  December  24, 
1821.  He  was  engaged  in  farming  in  Indiana  until  1872, 
in  which  year  he  moved  to  Greenwood  county,  Kansas, 
and  settled  on  a  farm  near  Eureka,  and  the  rest  of  his 
life  was  spent  in  farming  and  stock-raising  in  that  lo- 
cality. His  wife  died  March  10,  1891,  and  he  survived 
her  until  August  19,  1900.  Of  a  family  of  sixteen  chil- 
dren, two  died  in  infancy,  while  fourteen  grew  to  ma- 
turity, and  of  these  Mrs.  Newman  was  the  youngest. 
Mr.  Newman's  business  career  was  one  in  which  in- 
dustrial activity  was  blended  with  strict  integrity,  and 
his  official  efforts  have  been  such  as  to  win  the  unquali- 
fied esteem  and  confidence  of  his  fellow  townsmen, 
who  have  shown  their  appreciation  of  his  work  by  giv- 
ing him  their  hearty  support  and  personal  friendship. 


Albert  A.  Newman.  A  worthy  representative  of  one 
of  the  Yellowstone  valley's  pioneer  families,  and  a  man 
who,  for  more  than  thirty  years,  was  engaged  in  ranch- 
ing and  sheep  raising,  Albert  A.  Newman,  of  Billings, 
is  deserving  of  being  classed  among  the  progressive 
men  of  Montana,  who  have  been  intimately  connected 
with  its  growth  and  development.  Air.  Newman  was 
born  near  Bakersfield,  Kern  county,  California,  August 
16,  1869,  in  camp,  while  his  parents,  Orson  N.  and  Eliza- 
beth Matilda  (Tripp)  Newman,  were  making  their  way 
into  that  state. 

The  founders  of  the  Newman  family  in  America  came 
to  this  country  during  colonial  dajs,  and  members  there- 
of fought  valiantly  during  the  War  of  the  Revolution, 
also  furnishing  soldiers  for  the  struggle  between  Eng- 
land and  the  United  States  in  1812.  One  of  the  latter, 
Joel  Newman,  the  grandfather  of  Albert  A.,  was  born 
in  Delaware  county.  New  York,  March  22,  1788,  sub- 
sequently was  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  in  Or- 
leans county,  that  state,  and  spent  his  last  years  in 
Plymouth  township,  Wyoming  county,  New  York, 
where  his  death  occurred  October  6,  1866.  He  was 
first  a  Whig  and  later  a  Republican,  and  became  a 
well-known  and  highly  esteemed  citizen.  He  married 
Hannah  Lyon,  who  _  was  also  of  Revolutionary  stock, 
and  who  was  born  in  New  Jersey,  June  18,  1794,  and 
died  February  3,  1853,  and  they  had  a  family  of  five 
daughters  and  seven  sons,  the  four  youngest  sons  still 
surviving,  as  follows :  Timothy,  who  lives  in  Clinton 
county,  Michigan ;  Orson  N. ;  Hiram,  of  Polk  county, 
Oregon;  and  Albert,  who  resides' in  California. 

Orson  N.  Newman  was  born  in  Orleans  county.  New 
"V'ork,  February  15,  1830,  received  a  public  school  educa- 
tion, and  at  the  age  of  nineteen  years  began  working 
for  himself  at  clearing  land.  He  subsequently  spent 
eight  years  in  the  lumber  district  of  northern  Michigan, 
and  was  married  April  3,  1855,  at  Croton,  Newaygo 
county,  Michigan,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Matilda  Tripp,  a 
native  of  Ontario,  Canada.  Her  death  occurred  August 
18,  1886,  when  she  had  been  the  mother  of  eleven 
children,  namely:  Charles  H.,  chairman  of  the  board 
of  commissioners  of  Yellowstone  county;  Edwin  M., 
living  one  and  one-half  miles  south  of  Billings ;  Wm. 
M.,  a  farmer  of  the  Yellowstone  valley ;  Jane,  who  mar- 
ried Henry  McKinsey  of  East  Boulder,  Sweet  Grass 
county;  Asa  D.,  an  extensive  sheep  raiser  of  Billings; 
]\lary,  who  married  W.  J.  Scott,  of  Billings ;  Albert  A. ; 
Abe,  who  died  in  a  railroad  accident  in  1899,  when  he 
was  twenty-seven  years  of  age ;  Martha,  who  died 
when  seven  years  old ;  Mark,  engaged  in  sheep  and 
cattle  raising  on  his  fine  ranch  on  I31ue  Creek,  Yellow- 
stone county ;  and   Burton,  who  died  in  infancy. 

During  the  spring  of  1858  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Newman, 
accompanied  by  their  two  children,  left  Michigan  and 
went  by  way  of  Chicago,  St.  Louis  and  Atchison,  Kan- 
sas, to  America,  a  town  about  ninety  miles  from  Atchi- 
son, and  then  situated  on  the  border.  After  four  years 
spent  in  farming,  removal  was  made  to  Camp  Collins, 
Colorado,  and  in  the  spring  of  1863  the  family  joined  a 
freight  train  which  was  bound  for  East  Bannack, 
Montana.  At  that  point  the  train  broke  up  and  after 
a  stay  of  a  week  the  Newmans  pushed  on  to  Alder 
Gulch.  On  the  present  site  of  Virginia  City  the  father 
was  engaged  in  digging  drains,  and  the  mother  added 
to  the  income  by  selling  milk  and  bread  to  the  miners 
of  the  vicinity.  For  his  work  Mr.  Newman  was  paid  at 
the  rate  of  six  dollars  a  day  and  Mrs.  Newman  made 
almost  as  much  by  her  industry,  and  within  six  weeks 
they  had  accumulated  enough  capital  to  invest  in  a  hay 
ranch  in  the  Madison  valley.  Although  he  was  obliged 
to  pay  a  salary  of  five  dollars  a  day  to  his  hay  cutters 
and  twenty-five  dollars  apiece  for  scythes,  Mr.  Newman 
was  able  to  make  money,  and  he  there  built  a  station 
known  as  the  Elkhorn  Ranch  Farm  Roadhouse,  which 
was  liberally  patronized  during  the  early  days.  Dur- 
ing 1869  the  family  started  overland  for  California,  and 


/K  y,  jju^-ci£^(i-i-o-u^ 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


897 


in  October  of  that  year  reached  Santiago,  where  they 
remained  for  one  year.  In  1870  they  went  to  River- 
side (then  San  Bernardino)  county,  California,  and  in 
November  of  that  year  Mr.  Newman  assisted  in  building 
the  first  irrigation  ditch  in  that  county.  He  also  experi- 
mented with  grapes  and  oranges  on  a  ten  acre  tract, 
but  in  May,  1873,  started  northward  with  a  four-horse 
team,  going  overland  to  Portland,  Oregon.  He  spent 
the  winter  of  1873-4  in  contracting  and  cutting  timber 
for  sawmills,  and  in  the  spring  went  to  Snohomish 
river,  about  fifty  miles  from  Seattle,  Washington,  where 
he  and  his  two  sons,  Charles  H.  and  Edwin  M.,  spent 
the  winter  of  1874,  working  in  a  lumber  camp.  Still 
unsatisfied  with  their  location,  the  family  again  started 
on  its  journey,  aiming  for  Portland,  Oregon,  but  after 
going  through  the  Barlow  Pass  into  Walla  Walla  county, 
and  on  to  Palouse,  were  snow-bound  in  western  Idaho 
and  compelled  to  build  a  cabin  in  which  to  spend  the 
winter.  In  the  spring  of  1875  they  resumed  their 
journey  and  came  through  to  Meadow  Creek  Gallatin 
vallej',  Montana,  where  had  been  the  old  homestead  years 
before,  but  three  months  later  left  for  Bozeman,  where 
they  passed  the  following  winter.  The  spring  of  1876 
found  the  father  and  sons  engaged  in  farming  in  the 
Gallatin  valley,  but  after  two  years  they  loaded  a  large 
wagon  with  provisions  and  seeds  and  with  three  yoke 
of  oxen  came  overland  to  the  Yellowstone  valley,  lo- 
cating at  Coulson,  which  is  now  a  deserted  village  about 
two  miles  from  the  present  city  of  Billings.  For  some 
years  the  father  and  sons  followed  farming  there,  but 
in  1899  Orson  N.  Newman  retired  from  business  activ- 
ity, and  since  that  time  has  spent  his  winters  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  mainly  in  southern  California.  He  is  a 
Socialist  in  his  political  opinions,  and  has  served  as 
county  commissioner  and  as  justice  of  the  peace,  al- 
though he  has  never  sought  and  often  has  declined 
public  office.  Mr.  Newman  is  justly  esteemed  as  a 
citizen  and  is  numbered  with  the  honored  pioneers  of 
the  Yellowstone  valley. 

Albert  A.  Newman  accompanied  his  parents  in  their 
various  migrations,  and  his  first  schooling  was  secured 
in  the  Gallatin  valley,  at  Middle  Creek,  he  later  at- 
tending school  in  Custer  county.  He  worked  at  farm- 
ing and  stock  raising  on  his  father's  ranch,  and  in  1886 
engaged  in  the  sheep  business,  being  in  partnership 
with  his  brothers  up  to  1890,  when  he  took  up  farming 
on  his  own  account.  After  being  thus  engaged  for  four 
or  five  years,  he  went  to  Ada,  Ohio,  where  he  attended 
school  during  two  winter  terms,  and  he  then  returned  to 
the  old  homestead  in  the  Yellowstone  valley,  and  en- 
gaged in  farming  and  sheep  raising  until  1898.  He  was 
then  occupied  in  working  the  homestead  property  until 
1900,  and  in  that  year  started  to  raise  sheep  on  Bull 
Mountain,  Musselshell  county,  but  in  1910  sold  his 
stock  and  rented  the  ranch.  Since  that  time  he  has 
lived  practically  retired  at  his  Billings  home,  situated 
at  No.  1 122  North  Thirtieth  street.  In  pohtical  matters 
he  is  a  Republican,  but  he  has  not  cared  to  enter  public 
life. 

On  April  28,  1897,  Mr.  Newman  was  united  in  mar- 
riage with  Miss  Lillian  Shannon,  who  was  born  at 
Mankato,  Minnesota,  daughter  of  Andrew  S.  and  Chris- 
tina E.  (Spencer)  Shannon.  Mr.  Newman,  in  conse- 
quence of  his  genial  manner  and  his  general  worth 
and  usefulness,  and  for  the  fact  that  what  he  has 
acquired  is  the  result  of  his  own  thrift,  energy  and 
business  capacity,  is  highly  esteemed.  He  has  been  one 
of  the  first  to  assist  in  promoting  enterprises  of  a  bene- 
ficial nature,  and  takes  a  deep  interest  in  all  matters 
pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  the  people. 

William  Y.  Pemberton.  In  no  profession  is  there 
a  career  in  which  talent  is  more  quickly  discovered  than 
is  that  of  the  law,  and  in  no  field  of  endeavor  is  there 
demanded  a  more  careful  preparation,  a  more  thorough 
appreciation  of   the   absolute   ethics   of   life   and   of  the 


underlying  principles  which  form  the  basis  of  all  human 
rights  and  privileges.  Unflagging  application,  intuitive 
wisdom  and  a  determination  to  fully  utilize  the  means 
at  hand  are  the  concomitants  which  insure  personal 
success  and  prestige  in  this  great  profession,  which 
stands  as  a  stern  conservator,  and  it  is  one  in  which 
success  comes  only  as  a  result  of  natural  capacity,  un- 
mistakable ability  and  inflexible  integrity. 

Among  those  who  have  lent  dignity  and  honor  to  the 
bench  and  bar  of  Montana  is  Judge  William  Young 
Pemberton,  of  Helena,  who  has  the  distinction  of  hav- 
ing served  with  signal  ability  as  chief  justice  of  the 
supreme  court  of  the  state,  and  is  recognized  as  one 
of  the  able  jurists  and  legists  of  the  northwest. 

William  Y.  Pemberton  is  a  native  of  the  state  of 
Tennessee,  having  been  born  in  Nashville,  on  the  ist 
of  June,  1843.  His  parents  were  William  and  Martha 
(Brooks)  Pemberton,  and  he  was  one  of  four  sons, 
of  whom  he  was  the  youngest  and  is  now  the  only  one 
living.  The  genealogy  of  the  family  may  be  traced  back 
to  stanch  English  and  Scotch  ancestry,  the  original 
American  progenitors  in  the  agnatic  line  having  among 
the  early  settlers  in  the  Old  Dominion,  where  the  family 
was  one  of  prominence  and  influence.  Judge  Pember- 
ton was  reared  in  Missouri,  where  he  was  under  the 
tutelage  of  his  aunt,  Mrs.  Rebecca  E.  Williamson. 
Here  he  remained  until  he  attained  his  legal  majority, 
attending  the  public  schools  until  he"  was  of  age  to 
enter  college.  He  was  then  sent  to  the  Masonic  Col- 
lege, in  Lexington,  Missouri,  where  he  continued  his 
literary  studies,  in  the  meanwhile  formulating  his  plans 
for  preparing  himself  for  the  legal  profession.  With 
this  end  in  view  he  entered  the  Cumberland  Law 
School,  at  Lebanon,  Tennessee,  where  he  devoted  him- 
self assiduously  to  the  technics  of  the  law,  to  such  good 
purpose  that  he  was  graduated  with  the  class  of  1861. 

In  1863  Judge  Pemberton  came  to  Montana  and  be- 
came  one  of  the  pioneer  lawyers  of  the  state.  He  lo- 
cated in  Virginia  City,  and  before  long  had  a  flourishing 
practice.  The  early  laws  of  the  territory  were  vague 
and  indefinite  and  they  were  indifferently  administered. 
Therefore  the  interposition  of  a  skilled  and  discriminat- 
ing attorney,  who  in  addition  to  a  great  store  of  legal 
knowledge  had  also  the  gift  of  common  sense,  was 
hailed  with  delight  on  the  part  of  those  who  were  in 
favor  of  a  reign  of  law  and  order.  Judge  Pemberton 
thus  became  at  once  a  man  of  power  and  influence  and 
his  services  were  in  demand  in  all  parts  of  the  ter- 
ritory where  settlements  had  been  made  or  mining 
camps  established.  In  1865  he  removed  to  Helena,  then 
a  mere  mining  camp  straggling  up  Last  Chance  gulch. 
He  was  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  in  what  is  now  the 
beautiful  capital  city  of  the  state,  although  he  did  not 
long  continue  his  residence  there,  for  in  1868  he  re- 
turned to  Missouri.  Later  he  went  to  Texas  and  was 
there  engaged  in  professional  practice  until  1880,  when 
he  again  felt  the  call  of  the  wilder  west  and  he  re- 
turned to  Montana,  locating  in  Butte,  which  remained 
his  home  until  1909,  when  he  came  to  Helena,  where  he 
has   since   resided. 

Judge  Pemberton  was  gladly  welcomed  to  his  old 
home,  and  in  1882  he  was  elected  district  attorney  of 
the  West  Side  district,  which  included  the  greater  por- 
tion of  the  territory  west  of  the  mountains.  He  was 
reelected  to  this  position  to  succeed  himself  in  1884 
His  fitness  for  a  position  on  the  bench  became  more 
apparent  each  year  and  therefore  in  1891  he  was  ap- 
pointed district  judge  of  the  district  including  Butte, 
and  served  upon  its  bench  until  January  i,  1893.  when 
he  entered  upon  the  duties  of  the  highest  judicial  ofiice 
in  the  state,  becoming  chief  justice  of  the  supreme 
court,  an  office  to  which  he  had  been  elected  the  pre- 
ceding November. 

No  man  thus  identified  with  Montana's  highest  tri- 
bunal came  to  the  office  with  more  eminent  qualifica- 
tions than  did  Judge  Pemberton.     Possessing  a  strong 


898 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


and  distinct  individuality,  thoroughly  read  in  the  science 
of  the  law,  familiar  with  minutia  and  precedents,  and 
having  an  intuitively  judicial  mind,  he  brought  to  the 
supreme  bench  the  attributes  essential  to  the  insuring 
of  equity  and  justice  in  the  tribunal,  the  final  resort  of 
the  people  of  the  commonwealth.  His  rulings  on  the 
supreme  bench  were  singularly  able,  fair  and  impartial, 
showing  a  keen  discrimination  in  detecting  the  true  points 
at  issue  and  eliminating  all  that  was  irrelevant,  while 
his  opinions  were  concise  and  clearly  defined,  couched 
in  exact  and  effective  language  and  showing  the  broad 
mental  grasp  and  thorough  legal  knowledge  of  the  chief 
justice.  His  term  on  the  supreme  bench  expired  in 
1899  and  the  state  will  ever  owe  him  a  tribute  of  re- 
spect and  will  honor  him  as  a  wide  judge  and  an  up- 
right man.  After  his  retirement  from  the  bench.  Judge 
Pemberton  resumed  his  practice  of  the  law  in  Butte. 
His  high  prestige  and  well-known  ability  insured  him 
a  leading  clientage,  his  services  being  in  demand  by 
many  corporations,  while  he  continued  to  appear  in  con- 
nection with  much  of  the  important  litigation  in  the 
various  courts  of  the  state.  In  June,  1909,  Judge  Pem- 
berton was  appointed  librarian  of  the  State  Historical 
and  Miscellanous  Library  at  Helena,  and  to  the  duties 
of  this  office  he  now  gives  his  entire  time  and  atten- 
tion. 

In  his  political  allegiance  Judge  Pemberton  has  ever 
given  an  unswerving  support  to  the  principles  and  poli- 
cies of  the  Democratic  party,  and  he  has  wielded  a 
marked  influence  in  shaping  the  political  affairs  of  the 
state.  The  party  cause  has  been  greatly  advanced 
through  his  efforts,  both  in  private  and  public  advocacy 
of  those  principles  which  he  considers  the  true  ones, 
his  powers  in  dialetics  being  of  an  exceptional  order, 
and  always  at  the  disposal  of  his  party  during  a  poli- 
tical campaign.  Fraternally  the  judge  is  identified  with 
the  Masonic  order,  in  which  he  has  taken  the  capitular 
degrees.  He  has  taken  a  very  prominent  and  active 
part  in  the  affairs  of  the  Society  of  Montana  Pioneers, 
serving  as  president  of  the  organization. 

WiiLiAM  L.  Steele,  deceased.  It  is  doubtful  if  in  all 
the  chronicle  of  human  endeavor,  east  and  west,  there 
could  be  paralleled  in  variety  and  definite  usefulness  the 
record  of  that  fine  Montana  pioneer,  the  late  Dr.  Wil- 
liam L.  Steele.  To  say  that  he  was  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  members  of  his  profession  in  the  west  is 
but  to  begin  the  enumeration  of  his  abilities  and  in  the 
evolution  of  territory  and  state  he  played  a  diverse  and 
important  part.  Dr.  Steele  was  born  February  17,  1833. 
near  Pendleton,  Anderson  county.  South  Carolina,  and 
died  May  15,  1910,  at  his  home  in  Helena,  Montana. 
He  was  the  scion  of  stanch  old  Southern  stock,  the  son 
of  William  and  Margaret  (Guyton)  Steele,  natives  of 
the  county  which  was  the  scene  of  his  own  birth.  The 
father  was  a  midshipman  in  the  United  States  navy 
and  participated  in  the  decisive  naval  battle  between  the 
Chesapeake  and  the  Shannon  in  the  War  of  1812,  when 
Captain  Lawrence  was  mortally  wounded  and  uttered 
with  his  last  breath  the  heroic  words,  "Don't  give  up 
the  ship,"  which  have  been  the  inspiration  of  all  subse- 
quent American  generations.  After  the  termination  of 
his  services  in  war  the  elder  Steele  engaged  as  a  planter 
in  the  south,  until  summoned  to  the  "undiscovered 
country."  He  was  honored  with  the  gift  of  several 
offices  in  public  trust,  serving  in  the  legislature  of  his 
state  and  for  sixteen  years  acting  as  tax  collector.  The 
immigrant  ancestor  of  the  Steeles  was  of  Scotch-Irish 
stock,  and  located  first  in  Pennsylvania,  whence  his 
descendants  removed  to  South  Carolina,  their  exodus  to 
the  south  predating  the  Revolution,  in  which  the  Steeles 
were  active  and  valiant  for  the  cause  of  freedom.  The 
maternal  grandparents  of  Dr.  Steele  were  named  Wat- 
son, and  extant  record  shows  that  the  Grandmother 
Watson,    passing    through    the    camp    of    Lord    Corn- 


wallis,  carried  a  dispatch  to  General  Green,  during  the 
siege  of  Yorktown. 

Dr.  Steele  was  one  of  a  family  of  typical  pioneer  pro- 
portions, there  being  no  less  than  sixteen  children.  Of 
the  brothers,  three  became  residents  of  Montana.  The 
family  was  in  good  circumstances  and  the  father  had 
the  happiness  to  be  able  to  give  his  sons  good  educa- 
tions. The  doctor  received  his  academic  education  in 
the  John  L.  Kennedy  classical  school  in  Thalion 
Academy,  South  Carolina,  from  which  latter  institution 
he  graduated.  For  the  ensuing  two  years  he  was  en- 
gaged in  pedagogical  work  and  in  the  meantime,  having 
come  to  a  decision  as  to  his  life  work,  he  began  the 
reading  of  medicine.  In  1854,  he  matriculated  in  the 
South  Carolina  Medical  College  at  Charleston,  and  com- 
pleted a  three  years'  course,  receiving  his  degree  of 
M.  D.    in    1857. 

He  inaugurated  his  practice  as  contract  surgeon  with 
the  Rabun  Gap  Railroad,  in  which  position  he  served 
two  years.  In  1859  he  made  the  journey  across  the 
plains  to  Colorado,  answering  like  so  many  of  the  flower 
of  American  manhood,  the  beckoning  finger  of  Oppor- 
tunity from  the  westward.  In  the  new  state  he  made 
location  in  Missouri  City,  where  he  secured  a  placer 
claim,  which  he  worked  until  1862,  with  fair  success, 
in  the  meantime  doing  such  professional  work  as  came 
to  him.  In  Colorado  he  became  superintendent  of  the 
consolidated  ditch,  which  supplied  water  for  the  placer 
mines,  and  he  was  largely  interested  in  the  great  enter- 
prise. He  also  devoted  considerable  attention  to  stock 
raising. 

Dr.  Steele's  residence  in  Montana  dates  from  the 
year  1863.  His  first  residence  was  at  Bannack  City. 
whence  in  course  of  time  he  removed  to  Alder  Gulch, 
In  the  latter  locality  he  served  as  the  first  president, 
which  incumliency,  under  the  conditions  then  exist- 
ing implied  his  presiding  over  the  local  court  of  justice, 
his  powers  being  practically  supreme.  The  country 
was  new  and  wild  and  the  doctor  in  his  judicial  capacity 
presided  over  the  trial  of  several  outlaws  and  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  pass  the  death  sentence  upon  one 
or  more  criminals  condemned  to  execution.  In  1864 
he  brought  a  stock  of  goods  to  Alder  Gulch,  and  in  a 
very  short  time  disposed  of  them.  In  November  of  that 
year  he  located  in  Helena,  which  in  that  day  was  a  mere 
mining  camp,  and  this  was  destined  to  be  the  scene  of 
his  remaining  years.  He  immediately  purchased  a 
large  interests  in  mining  properties  in  Grizzlv  Gulch  and 
in  1865,  additional  ones  in  Ophir  Gulch,  Deer  Lodge 
county,  and  also  in  McClellan  Gulch.  All  of  these  he 
operated  with  success.  He  also  engaged  in  cattle  rais- 
ing and  in  1867  and  1868  he  conducted  freighting,  with 
Fort  Benton  as  headquarters. 

In  1869  Dr.  Steele  was  elected  sheriff  of  Lewis  and 
Clark  county,  during  his  two  years'  term  of  service 
doing  much  to  suppress  lawlessness  and  crime,  the  of- 
fice at  that  time  demanding  in  its  incumbent  great  tact, 
much  discrimination,  incessant  watchfulness  and  daunt- 
less courage.  From  1871  until  1898  he  gave  the  greater 
part  of  his  attention  to  active  medical  practice,  and  in 
the  latter  year,  being  then  of  advanced  age,  retired 
for  the  most  part  from  its  active  duties.  He  was  an 
enlightened  practitioner  and  the  friend  and  doctor  of 
hundreds  of  families. 

Instinctively  all  classes  paid  deference  to  Doctor 
Steele  and  were  eager  to  entrust  to  his  wisdom  and 
public-spirit  the  responsibilities  of  office.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  state  senate  in  the  legislature  of  1896; 
he  was  for  ten  years  county  coroner:  three  times  he 
was  elected  mayor  of  Helena,  and  in  1898  he  was  elect- 
ed treasurer  of  Lewis  and  Clark  county.  In  that  same 
year  he  was  strongly  urged  to  allow  the  use  of  his 
name  as  candidate  for  governor  of  the  state,  but  he  de- 
clined. In  scores  of  other  ways,  the  leading  citizens 
gave  dignified  evidence  df  the  esteem  in  which  they  held 
him,    not    only    in    his    home    city,    but    throughout    the 


-■^ 


Jaajui'  .if,'!:-!,-  iHistn'-'-t 


/^.^^^^     -yL 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


899 


state.  In  political  faith  he  was  a  Democrat  and  his 
active  loyalty  did  much  to  promote  the  success  of  the 
causes  for  which  the  party  stood.  Professionally  he 
was  a  member  of  state  and  county  medical  societies, 
and  his  fraternal  affiliations  extended  to  the  Knights  of 
Pythias,  and  the  Ancient  Order  of  United  Workmen. 

In  1865,  Dr.  Steele  laid  the  foundation  of  his  domes- 
tic happiness  by  his  marriage  to  Miss  Agnes  Forbes,  a 
native  of  Missouri.  The  children  born  to  bless  their 
union  are  Turner  A.,  Frank  F.  and  Agnes  B.  The 
Steele  home  was  famous  for  its  hospitality. 

Dr.  Steele  was  president  of  the  Association  of  Mon- 
tana Pioneers  and  in  its  ranks  all  honor  was  paid  to 
him  as  a  man  of  unsurpassed  usefulness  and  honor. 
In  all  the  relations  of  life  his  record  was  unblemished 
and  all  the  splendid  traits  of  the  sterling  pioneer  was 
his  in  abundance.  His  individuality  was  strong,  and 
at  the  same  time  pleasing  and  his  benevolence  and  love 
of  his  fellow  men  unbounded.  It  means  much  to  a  city 
to  number  among  its  inhabitants  men  of  his  type  in 
which  the  pure  fire  of  philanthropy  and  public  spirit 
l)urns  so  serenely ;  such  men  are  of  necessity  rare  and 
all  honor  is  due  to  them  when  they  are  found.  He  lived 
to  the  venerable  age  of  seventy-seven  and  of  him  it 
may  well  be  said, 

"The  sweet  remembrance  of  the  just, 
Shall  flourish  when  he  sleeps  in  dust." 

Ch.\rles  N.  Kessler.  A  name  identified  with  Mon- 
tana territorial  days,  and  connected  with  the  business 
life  of  Helena  for  almost  a  half  century,  is  that  repre- 
sented in  this  city  by  Charles  N.  and  Frederick  E. 
Kessler,  sons  of  Nickolas  Kessler,  whose  death 
occurred  in   Helena,  December  11,   1901. 

Nickolas  Kessler,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Montana,  as 
well  as  one  of  the  most  prominent  business  men  and 
citizens  of  his  day  in  the  city  of  Helena,  will  long  be 
remembered  as  a  man  whose  public  spirit  and  enter- 
prise were  important  factors  in  the  upbuilding  of  that 
city.  He  was  born  in  Lu.xemburg,  Germany,  May  26, 
1^33.  the  youngest  of  six  children.  His  father,  whose 
name  was  also  Nickolas,  owned  a  small  farm  near 
Befort.  in  the  grand  duchy  of  Luxemburg,  where  the 
son  was  reared  and  "received  his  early  education. 

When  Nickolas  Kessler  was  a  young  man  of  but 
little  more  than  twenty  he  immigrated  to  America, 
landing  at  New  York  on  January  10,  1854.  After  a 
brief  stay  in  that  city  he  went  to  Detroit,  where  he 
secured  employment  in  a  grocery  store.  Following 
this  he  was  employed  in  several  towns  through  north- 
ern Michigan,  and  at  one  time  worked  in  the  lumber 
districts.  Going  to  Chicago,  he  was  for  about  three 
years  employed  in  the  commission  and  feed  business, 
in  partnership  with  James  McPherson,  in  which  con- 
nection Mr.  Kessler  was  able  to  accumulate  a  small 
cai)ital. 

In  the  winter  of  1859-60,  when  the  news  of  the  gold 
discoveries  at  Pike's  Peak  was  spreading  over  the 
country,  Mr.  Kessler  like  many  others  joined  the  ex- 
odus to  that  section.  In  disposing  of  his  business  in- 
terests he  acquired  a  small  capital  which  was  invested 
in  a  mine  at  White  Gulch,  Colorado.  This  property 
proved  to  be  only  a  "pocket,"  so  that  his  initial  mining 
investment  really  served  to  exhaust  rather  than  in- 
crease his  capital.  He  had  considerable  experience  in 
the  mining  camps  of  Colorado,  without  profitable  re- 
sults. With  a  partv  of  others  in  August,  1863,  he  started 
for  Bannack,  Montana.  The  journey  was  a  long  and 
dangerous  one,  and  after  roughing  it  for  many  days 
the  party  arrived  in  Virginia  City,  Montana,  Septem- 
ber 22,  1863.  This  camp  was  then  at  the  height  of  its 
excitement,  eatables  were  selling  at  fabulous  prices,  and 
Mr.  Kessler  opened  a  small  bakery  and  restaurant, 
which  he  conducted  with  some  profit  during  the  next 
year  or  so.  By  this  time  he  had  accumulated  some 
Vol.  n— 4 


little  capital,  and  he  concluded  to  make  a  visit  to  his 
old  home  in  Germany.  It  was  while  visiting  the  scenes 
of  his  boyhood  days  in  Germany  that  he  received  a 
letter  from  a  friend  back  in  Montana  informing  him 
that  this  friend  had  staked  a  splendid  mining  claim  for 
him  in  Confederate  gulch,  which  would  be  retained 
for  Mr.  Kessler  if  he  would  return  to  Montana.  Mr. 
Kessler  hastened  back  to  find  that  his  friend  could  not 
hold  the  property,  and  that  it  had  been  "jumped." 

About  this  time  the  Blackfoot  City  mining  iDoom  was 
on,  and  Mr.  Kessler  went  there  with  the  intention  of 
building  a  brewery  for  Charles  Beehrer,  of  Nevada, 
with  whom  he  had  become  associated.  Work  on  the 
building  was  at  once  begun,  but  before  its  completion 
it  was  discovered  that  the  mines  were  beginning  to 
play  out,  and  the  future  prospects  of  the  camp  would 
not  warrant  its  completion.  Mr.  Kessler  then  went  to 
Helena  and  took  charge  of  a  brewery  owned  by  Mr. 
Beehrer,  which  plant  he  purchased  in  1865,  since  which 
time  it  has  been  known  as  the  Kessler  Brewery  and  has 
always  remained  in  the  family,  a  record  in  the  state  of 
Montana  for  continuous  ownership  and  operation  of  an 
industrial  institution.  From  time  to  time  the  plant  has 
been  rebuilt  or  enlarged,  modern  machinery  installed 
with  all  the  latest  -sanitary  appliances,  until  now  it  is 
one  of  the  largest  and  best  equipped  manufacturing 
establishments  of  its  kind  in  the  northwest.  Mr. 
Charles  N.  Kessler  is  the  president  and  Mr.  F.  E. 
Kessler  is  secretary  and  treasurer.  Beginning  with 
an  output  of  less  than  1,000  barrels  of  beer  annually, 
this  has  grown  to  over  25,000  barrels  per  annum,  and 
the  plant  employs  about  50  men.  In  1866  Mr.  Nickolas 
Kessler  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  brick,  and  later 
added  sewer  pipe  and  tile,  becoming  the  pioneer  man- 
ufacturer in  that  line  of  industry,  which  was  enlarged 
and  improved  and  included  in  its  product  paving  brick, 
standard  and  ornamental  flower  pots  and  vases,  fire 
proofing,  as  well  as  an  output  of  several  million  com- 
mon brick  per  year.  This  plant  subsequently  became 
the  Western  Clav  Manufacturing  Company,  and  is  now 
one  of  the  most  extensive  plants  of  its  kind  in  Montana, 
and  one  of  Helena's  leading  industrial  institutions. 
Mr.  Kessler  was  one  of  the  original  board  of  directors 
of  the  National  Bank  of  Montana,  and  was  president  of 
the  Cascade  Land  Company.  Politically  he  was  a  Re- 
publican and  served  in  the  territorial  legislature  of 
1873,  while  fraternally  he  belonged  to  the  Masons  as 
a  member  of  Morning  Star  Lodge,  also  to  the  Elks, 
Sons  of  Hermann  and  was  for  one  year  president  of 
the  Society  of  Montana  pioneers. 

Mr.  Kessler  was  married  in  1873  to  Miss  Louise  Ebert, 
a  native  of  New  York  City,  whose  death  occurred  in 
1880.  She  left  three  children,  Charles  N.,  Frederick 
F.  and  Mathilde,  the  latter  the  wife  of  Capt.  Wil- 
liam B.  Cochran.  U.  S.  A.,  and  has  two  daughters, 
Louise  K.,  and  Marion  L.  The  death  of  Mr.  Kessler 
occurred  on  December  11,  1901,  and  his  demise  was  a 
sad  blow  to  the  city  of  Helena  as  well  as  to  his  inti- 
mate friends  and  relatives.  Few  men  have  contributed 
more  to  the  industrial  progress  of  Helena  than  did 
Nickolas  Kessler.  His  "ersonal  characteristics  were 
geniality,  kindness  of  heart  and  a  strong  sense  of  public 
and  private  duty. 

The  following  tribute  to  his  memory,  taken  from  the 
Helena  Independent,  is  a  truthful  reflex  of  public  senti- 
ment over  his  untimely  death :  "The  saddest  news 
Helena  people  have  heard  in  many  a  long  time  they 
received  yesterday,  when  it  became  known  that  'Nick' 
Kessler  (as  every  one  knew  him)  was  dead.  For  some 
time  Mr,  Kessler  had  complained  of  not  feeling  well, 
and  he  planned  to  make  a  visit  to  California  this  winter. 
About  a  week  ago  he  was  too  ill  to  come  into  town, 
and  while  many  of  his  close  friends  knew  he  was  sick, 
it  was  not  thought  he  was  dangerously  ill.  His  im- 
mediate family  did  not  think  so  either.  His  sons  and 
daughter  have  been  untiring  in  their  attentions  to  him 


900 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


while  he  was  confined  to  his  home,  but  they  could  not 
realize  that  his  condition  was  serious.  But  yesterday 
morning  about  six  o'clock  the  end  came.  Four  hours 
previously  he  had  a  bad  attack,  and  his  physician,  Dr. 
William  Treacy,  was  summoned.  But  his  skill  was 
unavailing.  After  the  first  attack  Mr.  Kessler  became 
unconscious,  then  rallied  a  bit,  relapsed  again  into  un- 
consciousness and  then  went  off  into  a  quiet  sleep  from 
which  he  never  awoke,  and  it  was  such  a  passing  away 
as  seemed  fitting  to  the  ending  of  a  good  man's  life — 
quiet,  painless,  peaceful. 

"It  is  probable  the  death  of  no  other  man  in  Helena 
would  have  occasioned  such  universal  regret  as  that  of 
Nickolas  Kessler.  For  thirty-eight  years  he  lived  in 
this  community  and  during  all  of  that  time  he  was  a 
potent  factor  in  the  business  life  of  the  community.  In 
every  relation  of  life — husband,  father,  business  asso- 
ciate and  man  of  affairs — he  was  tried  and  in  each  of 
them  acquitted  himself  so  well  that  yesterday  the  unan- 
imous voice  of  the  people  was  that  Helena  had  lost  one 
of  the  best  citizens  she  had  ever  possessed.  In  all  of 
the  years  he  had  lived  in  this  community  it  is  doubtful 
if  he  made  an  enemy.  Honest  in  every  dealing,  con- 
siderate of  others,  and  always  willing  to  take  his  share 
of  the  misfortunes  which  came  to  those  who  take  an 
active  part  in  affairs,  his  was  a  proud  record.  He  was 
an  old-timer  and  with  them  he  was  popular  and  well- 
beloved  ;  the  new-comers  always  found  him  ready  to 
lend  his  assistance  to  any  legitimate  enterprise.  He 
saw  many  of  the  boys  and  girls  grow  up  into  manhood 
and  womanhood,  and  they  liked  him  because  he  always 
had  a  pleasant  word  for  them. 

"It  is  the  men  who  have  been  associated  with  him  in 
business  enterprises  who  realize  what  a  loss  to  the  city 
his  death  is.  In  all  of  the  years  he  lived  in  Helena  he 
was  ever  foremost  in  everything  that  looked  to  the  up- 
building of  the  city.  When  it  was  proposed  to  build 
branch  railroad  lines  from  Helena,  Mr.  Kessler  was 
among  the  leaders  who  were  ready  to  subscribe  money 
for  the  enterprise.  When  the  hard  times  came  and  the 
men  who  had  been  the  most  progressive  and  enter- 
prising were  the  hardest  hit,  Mr.  Kessler  did  not  es- 
cape, but  he  always  had  a  cheerful  smile  and  he  did  not 
try  to  save  himself  by  putting  his  burden  on  others. 
Instead,  he  was  lenient  with  those  whom  leniency 
would  assist  in  giving  a  chance  to  recoup,  and  he  went 
ahead  doing  all  in  his  power  to  bring  about  good  times 
again  in  the  community.  With  Col.  C.  A.  Broad- 
water, he  was  a  loyal  and  enthusiastic  worker  for 
Helena,  and  where  the  dollars  of  one  went  for  the  up- 
building of  the  city,  there  the  dollars  of  the  other 
could  be  found." 

His  great  energy  and  business  ability  made  it  pos- 
sible for  him  not  only  to  build  up  large  enterprises  and 
accumulate  a  fortune  for  his  family,  but  to  render  most 
valuable  aid  to  any  enterprise  or  movement  of  benefit 
to  his  city  or  state.  He  was  one  of  the  best  known 
pioneers  in  the  state,  and  the  association  of  those  old 
citizens  did  not  have  a  more  enthusiastic  member. 

The  two  sons  of  Mr.  Kessler,  Charles  N.  and  Frede- 
rick E.,  are  numbered  among  the  active  business  men 
of  Helena,  where  thev  are  prominent  in  the  business, 
financial  and  social  life  of  the  city. 

Charles  N.  Kessler  married  Miss  Sarah  Hewett.  of 
Basin,  Montana,  and  they  have  one  child,  a  son,  Charles 
Nickolas.  Frederick  E.  Kessler  married  Miss  Florence 
Gordon  of  Whitewater,  Wisconsin,  and  their  two  chil- 
dren are  Helen  Kern  and  Louise  Ebert. 

John  Hines.  Conspicuous  among  the  best  known 
and  most  prosperous  citizens  of  Broadwater  county 
is  John  Hines,  who  through  his  own  efforts  has  ac- 
quired a  handsome  property,  and  is  now  living  in 
Townsend.  retired  from  agricultural  pursuits,  but  ac- 
tive in  public  .affairs,  being  now  county  commissioner 
of  his  home  county.     A  son  of  the  late  Edward  Hines, 


he    was    born    in    1842,    near    Kilkenny,    Ireland,    where 
his   childhood   days   were   passed. 

Born,  reared  and  married  in  Ireland,  Edward  Hines 
emigrated  from  Kilkenny  to  the  United  States  in  1848. 
Settling  with  his  family  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  he  was 
there  a  resident  until  his  death,  about  1878,  for  many 
years  having  been  a  prominent  contractor  of  that  city. 
He  married  Anna  Gall,  a  native  of  Kilkenny,  Ireland, 
and  of  the  eight  children  born  of  their  union  but  two 
are  living,  as  follows :  John,  the  subject  of  this  sketch ; 
and  Kearns,  a  retired  contractor,  living  on  Walnut 
Hills,   Cincinnati,   Ohio. 

Coming  with  his  parents  to  America  in  1848,  John 
Hines  attended  the  public  schools  of  Cincinnati  until 
sixteen  years  old.  Beginning  life  then  as  a  wage 
earner,  he  was  for  three  years  a  clerk  in  the  grocery 
establishment  of  Patrick  Tracy,  whose  store  was  lo- 
cated at  the  corner  of  Central  avenue  and  McFarland 
street.  Bidding  farewell  then  to  parents  and  friends, 
he  responded  to  the  lure  of  the  wild  west,  striking  out 
boldly  for  the  gold  fields.  Going  by  rail  to  St.  Joseph, 
Missouri,  he  then  proceeded  by  boat  to  Council  Bluffs, 
Iowa,  where  he  outfitted  for  Montana.  Crossing  the 
Missouri  river  June  10,  1863,  Mr.  Hines  arrived  at 
Bannack,  Montana,  late  in  September.  He  remained 
there  a  week,  and  then  started  with  his  fellow  com- 
panions toward  the  frontier,  reaching  Alder  Gulch,  now 
Virginia   City,   Montana,  in   October. 

At  the  Sweetwater  crossing,  Mr.  Hines  and  his  party, 
which  consisted  of  seven  men,  separated  from  the 
main  body  of  the  wagon  train,  composed  principally 
of  Mormons,  who  were  bound  for  an  entirely  different 
part  of  the  country.  Subsequently  Indians  overtook 
Mr.  Hines  and  his  party  one  night,  and  stole  some 
of  their  oxen.  Mr.  Hines  and  three  of  his  fellow- 
travelers  voted  to  chase  the  thieves  rather  than  return 
to  the  nearest  trading  post  to  buy  more  oxen,  and  three 
of  the  party  started  out  after  the  savages,  traveling 
twenty  miles  before  catching  sight  of  them.  By  an 
exchange  of  shots  the  pursuers  forced  the  Indians  to 
abandon  the  cattle,  but  not  before  one  of  the  animals 
had  been  killed.  Having  driven  off  the  Indians,  the 
band  of  emigrants  secured  their  cattle,  and  retraced 
their  steps  to  the  camping  place  of  the  Creighton 
train,  and  reported  what  had  happ»ned  and  with  twenty 
men  armed  with  Winchester  rifles  Mr.  Hines  guided 
them  to  where  the  ox  was  killed.  They  found  two 
hind  quarters,  the  remainder  of  the  carcass  having  been 
taken  away  by  the  Indians. 

Mr.  Hines  remained  at  Alder  Gulch,  mining  and 
prospecting,  until  1868,  during  the  time  having  for  two 
years,  in  company  with  John  McQueen,  operated  a 
general  store,  after  which  he  had  assisted  in  the  build- 
ing of  the  telegraph  line  from  Virginia  City  to  Helena. 
In  1868  he  located  at  Radersburg,  Broadwater  county, 
and  a  short  time  later  moved  to  Missouri  valley,  where 
he  pre-empted  and  homesteaded  land.  Embarking  then 
in  agricultural  pursuits,  Mr.  Hines  had  a  very  success- 
ful career,  becoming  one  of  the  most  prominent  and 
progressive  farmers  and  stock  raisers  of  the  county. 
Disposing  of  his  ranch  and  stock  in  1899,  spending 
the  winter  in  California,  he  took  up  his  residence  in 
May,  1900,  at  Townsend,  intending  to  spend  his  remain- 
ing days  in  a  pleasant  leisure.  His  many  friends,  how- 
ever, frustrated  his  well-laid  plans  by  re-electing  him 
county  commissioner  for  a  second  term  of  six  years, 
he  having  served  his  first  term  of  two  years  from  1906- 
1908. 

He  is  a  steadfast  Democrat  in  politics,  and  both  he 
and  his  wife  are  members  of  the  Catholic  church. 

Mr.  Hines  has  been  twice  married.  He  married 
first,  at  Alder  Gulch,  Anna  Jane  Howard,  who  was 
born  in  Ireland.  She  passed  to  the  life  beyond,  Jan- 
uary 27,  1908,  leaving  seven  children,  namely :  Annie, 
widow  of  Edward  V.  Moran,  a  ranchman  of  From- 
berg,    Montana ;    George    Edward,    a    stock-raiser    in 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


901 


Alberta,  Canada;  John  Thomas,  of  Fromberg,  assist- 
ing his  sister,  Mrs.  Moran,  in  the  care  of  her  ranch; 
Kate,  wife  of  A.  B.  Timsley,  of  Rockvale,  Montana, 
a  farmer  and  stockman;  Theresa  H.,  widow  of  Patrick 
Croak,  of  Townsend ;  Lucy  H.,  wife  of  John  Whaley, 
of  Canton,  a  rancher  and  stockman;  and  Stasia  H.,  wife 
of  W.  D.  Neild,  a  well-known  ranchman  of  Townsend. 
Mr.  Hines  married  second,  on  September  15,  1910, 
Ellen  Cleary,  who  was  born  in  Ontonagon,  Michigan. 

Martin  Barrett.  It  is  no  doubt  true  that  Ireland, 
of  all  countries  of  the  world,  has  sent  more  immigrants 
in  proportion  to  population  to  the  United  States  than 
any  other  country,  and  the  reason  is  well  known.  For 
hundreds  of  years  the  Emerald  Isle  has  been  denied 
many  valuable  rights  and  privileges  by  Great  Britain 
and  the  pride  and  honor  of  the  people  were  ground  into 
the  dust.  They  could  avoid  this  only  by  leaving  the 
island,  much  as  they  loved  it,  and,  accordingly,  thou- 
sands of  them,  as  the  years  rolled  around,  have  crossed 
the  wide  Atlantic  to  find  a  home  of  greater  freedom  in 
America.  They  began  to  come  in  large  numbers  after 
the  Revolution  and  have  continued  to  come  until  the 
present  time.  In  every  state  they  settled  and  built  up 
comfortable  homes.  They  were  among  our  first  teach- 
ers and  business  men  and  today  they  occupy  many  of 
the  proudest  positions  within  the  gift  of  the  inhabitants. 
In  Erin  was  born  Martin  Barrett,  one  of  Dillon's  most 
honored  and  honorable  citizens,  a  veritable  pioneer, 
since  he  has  lived  in  the  state  since  1863.  His  occupa- 
tion is  that  of  a  stock-raiser,  but  he  has  held  many  pub- 
lic offices  with  great  credit,  having  been  state  representa- 
tive, stock  commissioner,  etc.,  and  no  one  in  Beaverhead 
county  is  better  or  more  favorably  known. 

County  Mayo,  Ireland,  was  the  scene  of  the  birth  of 
Martin  Barrett  and  its  date  was  February  2,  1840.  He 
remained  in  his  native  country  until  about  the  age  of 
seven,  when,  his  father  having  died  a  short  time  pre- 
viously, his  mother  removed  to  Canada,  and  there  young 
Martin  remained  until  1859.  Then,  a  youth  of  nineteen 
years,  he  went  to  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  where  for  about 
a  twelvemonth  he  worked  at  various  occupations.  In 
i860  he  crossed  the  plains  to  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  and 
then  went  back  to  St.  Joseph.  In  1861  he  went  to  Colo- 
rado, where  he  remained  for  two  years  engaged  in  min- 
ing and  in  1863  he  first  came  to  Montana,  settling  at 
Horse  Prairie,  Beaverhead  county,  and  so  favorably  was 
he  impressed  with  the  opportunities  of  the  section  that 
he  has  ever  since  remained  here  and  has  won  success 
and  general  respect.  He  has  followed  stock  raising  ever 
since  his  arrival  within  the  borders  of  the  state.  He  has 
erected  a  beautiful  home  in  Dillon,  and  is  now  leading 
a  retired  life,  free  to  cultivate  the  finer  things  of  life 
and  the  friendships  of  which  he  has  many. 

At  an  age  when  most  boys  are  thinking  of  little  be- 
sides schooling  and  diversion  Mr.  Barrett  had  become 
familiar  with  honest  toil.  He  earned  his  first  money  as 
a  boy  of  thirteen,  cutting  and  splitting  wood  at  seventy- 
five  cents  a  cord.  In  Canada  he  served  an  apprentice- 
ship of  five  years,  learning  the  tanner  and  currier's 
trade,  but  he  never  followed  it.  His  first  entire  sum- 
mer's occupation  was  while  on  a  farm  in  Canada,  when 
he  worked  six  months  at  four  dollars  a  month  and 
saved  the  entire  twenty-four  dollars.  Out  of  this  money 
he  bought  a  spotted  pig,  of  which  he  made  his  mother 
a  present,  and  he  stayed  at  home  that  winter  and  went 
to  school. 

The  subject's  father,  Thomas  Barrett,  was  born  and 
lived  in  Ireland  all  his  life,  and  in  that  country  fol- 
lowed farming.  When  less  than  seven  years  of  age,  as 
before  mentioned,  his  father  died.  The  mother,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Nancy  McDonald,  was  born  in  Ire- 
land, and  when  her  husband  died  she  came  across  the 
ocean  to  Canada.  Subsequently  she  removed  to  Kan- 
sas, and  at  Wathena,  that  state,  .she  passed  away  at  the 
advanced  age  of  ninety  years,  being  there  interred.  There 


were  nine  children  in  the  elder  Barrett  family  and  all 
were  boys,  the  subject  being  the  sixth  in  order  of  birth 
and  the  only  one  living  at  the  present  time. 

Mr.  Barrett  has  ever  given  hand  and  heart  to  the 
policies  and  principles  of  the  Democratic  party  and  while 
he  has  held  office  he  is  not  and  never  has  been  what  is 
termed  a  politician,  having  no  taste  for  the  wire-pulling 
which  is  too  often  a  part  of  the  game  of  politics.  In 
1879  he  was  sent  to  represent  Beaverhead  county  in  the 
state  legislature  and  so  faithful  was  he  to  the  interests 
of  his  constituency  that  he  was  returned  in  1885.  He 
was  stock  commissioner  for  six  years  and  at  one  time 
was  a  member  of  the  school  board.  An  amusing  cir- 
cumstance occurred  in  this  connection,  Mrs.  Barrett  be- 
ing nominated  for  the  same  office  and  running  against 
him  and  that  successfully,  for  she  beat  him.  She  was  % 
school  trustee  for  twenty-two  years  and  gave  most  in- 
telligent and  faithful  service  to  the  cause  she  repre- 
sented. 

Mr.  Barrett  laid  the  foundation  of  a  happy  and  con- 
genial life  companionship  by  his  union  on  August  6, 
1867,  at  Red  Rock,  Montana,  to  Alice  E.  Cook,  daughter 
of  Captain  Hiram  and  Mary  E.  (Vining)  Cook,  of 
Michigan.  Mrs.  Barrett's  father  was  born  in  the  state 
of  New  York  and  was  by  occupation  a  carpenter  and 
contractor.  He  served  in  the  Civil  war,  enlisting  in 
Com.pany  H,  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Michigan  Infantry,  and 
he  was  commissioned  captain  at  the  start.  In  1867  he 
came  to  Montana,  settling  in  Boulder,  and  there  he  was 
called  to  the  Great  Beyond  at  the  age  of  seventy-three 
years.  The  mother  was  also  a  native  of  the  Empire 
state  and  their  marriage  was  celebrated  in  Ohio.  Their 
union,  which  was  a  wonderfully  happy  and  devoted  one, 
was  of  fifty-two  years'  duration.  The  mother  died  in 
Boulder  when  seventy-seven  and  these  good  people  are 
not  parted  in  death,  for  they  lie  side  by  side.  Mrs. 
Barrett  has  three  sisters  and  a  brother,  as  follows:  Mrs. 
Mary  Jefifries  resides  in  Hamilton,  Montana,  as  does 
Mrs.  E.  M.  Pollinger.  Mrs.  Katie  Evans  makes  her 
home  at  Como,  and  the  brother,  Frank  Cook,  is  mar- 
ried and  a  citizen  of  Como. 

Mrs.  Barrett  is  a  woman  endowed  with  many  good 
gifts  of  mind  and  heart,  of  the  type  which  Montana 
recognizes  as  the  flower  of  its  womanhood.  All  good 
causes  have  her  support  and  in  this  case  "support"  is  by 
no  means  nominal  or  a  mere  rhetorical  expression,  for 
her  forcefulness  and  character  are  remarkable.  Through- 
out his  career  Mr.  Barrett  has  consulted  her  on  all  mat- 
ters of  importance  and  always  found  her  counsel  calm 
and  wise.  Throughout  all  Beaverhead  county  they  are 
held  in  high  honor  and  esteem.  They  are  zealous  com- 
municants of  the  Catholic  church  and  the  subject  is  a 
member  of  the  Society  of  Montana  Pioneers. 

William  T.  Morrow.  Although  William  T.  Mor- 
row has  been  a  resident  of  the  western  states  for  many 
years  and  has  seen  much  of  the  pioneer  conditions  and 
primitive  life  of  the  country  in  the  early  days,  his 
life  has  been  all  serenity  and  calm  when  compared 
with  the  strenuous  days  of  his  father  in  the  sixties 
and  even  later.  Mr.  Morrow  is  the  son  of  Malcolm 
and  Janet  (Matheson)  Morrow,  the  former  born  in 
Ontario,  Canada,  and  the  latter  a  native  of  Glasgow, 
Scotland.  In  the  year  1857,  Malcolm  Morrow  removed 
from  Canada  into  the  states,  first  locating  in  Iowa, 
near  the  town  of  Marengo.  He  was  a  cooper  by  trade 
and  followed  that  business  in  his  Iowa  home  until  the 
spring  of  i860,  when  the  same  restless  spirit  which  had 
prompted  his  removal  from  the  quietude  of  Canadian 
life  into  the  busier  life  of  the  states,  sent  him  to  Pike's 
Peak,  Colorado,  where  he  engaged  in  the  mining  busi- 
ness. He  purchased  some  mining  property  in  the  Dele- 
ware  Flats,  continuing  there  for  about  a  year,  when, 
his  efl'orts  not  being  rewarded  with  a  sufficient  degree 
of  success,  he  moved  to  Black  Hawk  Point,  Colorado 
and    settled    near    the    famous    Gregorv   and    Bob   Tail 


902 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


quartz  mines,  there  engaging  in  ranching.  He  re- 
mained thus  occupied  until  the  summer  of  1863,  when 
he  removed  to  a  point  fifteen  miles  south  of  Denver, 
on  Plum  creek,  where  he  established  his  family,  and 
made  preparations  to  move  on  to  Montana  alone.  He 
started  out  with  a  yoke  of  oxen  and  a  covered  wagon, 
arriving  in  Virginia  City  in  November,  1863.  There 
he  engaged  in  mining  at  Bevins  Gulch,  where  he  was 
fortunate  in  securing  a  good  claim.  He  found  a  part- 
ner, named  Kennedy,  and  the  two  lived  in  the  wagon 
all  winter  and  worked  the  claim  on  shares.  In  the 
springtime,  when  Mr.  Morrow  returned  to  Denver  to 
get  his  family,  Mr.  Kennedy  took  advantage  of  his 
absence  and  the  lax  business  methods  there  prevail- 
ing and  sold  the  claim,  taking  the  wise  precaution  of 
leaving  the  country.  When  Mr.  Morrow  returned  to 
Bevins  Gulch  he  had  no  claim,  and  his  one-time  part- 
ner had  the  money  for  the  property.  This  was  a  most 
unfortunate  circumstance,  as  the  claim  later  developed 
a  valuable  mine.  While  in  the  Gulch  Mr.  ^Morrow 
formed  many  acquaintances  from  which  lasting  friend- 
ships were  evolved,  and  he  had  many  thrilling  experi- 
ences which  were  common  to  all  who  in  those  days  had 
sufficient  hardihood  to  brave  the  possible  and  almost 
certain  adventures  of  the  life  in  a  mining  camp.  Road 
agents  were  common,  and  every  man  was  prepared 
to  protect  his  life  and  property  at  all  cost.  On  one 
occasion  Mr.  Morrow  welcomed  to  his  camp  one  Holter 
who  had  been  shot  by  George  Ives,  one  of  the  greatest 
desparadoes  of  the  country.  Mr.  Holter  and  Mr.  Mor- 
row became  fast  friends,  and  later  they  assisted  the 
vigilantes  to  hang  Ives,  who  was  so  unfortunate  as  to 
fall  into  their  hands.  Mr.  Morrow  assisted  in  the 
capture  and  execution  of  Slaide  and  Buck  Stimson, 
two  road  agents  who  made  life  uncomfortable  for 
honest  men  in  Montana  for  many  months  before  they 
were  finally  captured  and  brought  to  justice.  On  his 
trip  from  Virginia  City  to  Denver,  where  his  family 
was  located,  Mr.  Morrow  acted  as  one  of  the  escort,  the 
other  two  being  John  Featherstone  and  X.  Biedler,  of 
"Billy"  Kiskadden,  and  who  was  taking  back  to  Colo- 
rado a  great  quantity  of  gold,  all  a  large  mule  could 
carry.  They  traveled  by  night  to  avoid  highwaymen 
and  skulking  Indians,  and  they  reached  Denver  in 
safetv  on  May  i,  1864,  having  started  on  the  trip  in 
March. 

Returning  with  his  family,  Mr.  Morrow  arrived  at 
California  Gulch,  three  miles  east  of  Alder  Gulch,  on 
July  4,  1864;  they  made  the  trip  by  ox  team  and  drove 
a  herd  of  forty-one  head  of  cattle.  The  journey  was 
attended  by  many  hardships  and  perils,  and  they  crossed 
streams  so  swollen  that  the  animals  with  difficulty  were 
able  to  swim  across.  While  en  route,  Martin  Holter, 
a  brother  of  A.  M.  Holter  of  Helena,  overtook  the 
party  on  the  road  with  his  horse  teams  and  passed 
the  Morrows,  who  were  en  route  to  Alder  Gulch.  At 
California  Gulch,  where  they  settled,  Mr.  Morrow  sold 
dairy  products  to  the  residents  of  Virginia  City  and 
despite  the  high  prices  paid  for  food  stuffs,  a  sack 
of  flour  bringing  $150,  and  ofiier  groceries  in  pro- 
portion, as  the  result  of  the  Civil  war,  Mr.  Morrow 
was  able  to  maintain  his  family  in  comfort.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1865,  Mr.  Morrow  returned  to  Lost  Chance 
Gulch  and  became  engaged  in  dairy  farming  three 
miles  south  of  Helena,  and  there  he  continued  to 
farm  until  the  fall  of  1865,  when  he  moved  down  to 
Prickly  Pear  valley  and  remained  there  till  the  spring 
of  1867.  Mr.  Morrow  freighted  from  Salt  Lake  to 
Helena  and  from  Benton  to  Helena,  assisted  by  his 
sons,  Dave  and  Malcom,  William  remaining  at  home  to 
attend  to  the  dairying  on  the  old  Bob  Hereford  ranch 
on  Big  Prickly  Pear  valley.  The  freighting  business 
between  Helena  and  Benton  was  conducted  via  Med- 
icine Rock  and  Lyons  Hill,  both  extremely  difficult 
mountains  to  cross  before  the  toll  road  was  built  through 
the  Prickly  Pear  canyon.  In  1878  Mr.  Morrow  estab- 
lished   a   permanent    residence    in    Fort    Benton,    where 


he  was  living  at  the  time  of  his  death,  which  occurred 
in  May,  1891.  In  addition  to  his  farming  and  freight- 
ing business,  Mr.  Morrow  conducted  a  ferrying  busi- 
ness on  the  Missouri  river  at  Fort  Benton,  and 
altogether  was  a  busy  man  all  the  days  of  his  life.  He 
was  a  typical  pioneer,  and  one  of  the  men  who  have 
made  the  recent  years  of  progress  in  the  West  pos- 
sible to  the  men  who  came  after  them.  He  was  fear- 
less to  a  fault,  and  no  duty  was  too  severe  or  no 
hardship  too  difficult  for  him  to  undertake  and  bring 
to  completion.  For  years  he  was  an  officer  of  promi- 
nence in  the  vigilante  committee  of  his  locality.  Thomas 
Baum,  also  an  officer,  in  fact  captain  of  the  vigilance 
committee,  together  with  Mr.  Morrow,  at  one  time 
entered  a  darkened  cabin  in  Virginia  City  and  arrested 
a  desperado  who  had  sought  shelter  there  with  five 
companions  In  order  to  secure  their  man  it  was 
necessary  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  the  guns  of  the  other 
five,  but  by  a  strategic  ruse  they  succeeded  in  covering 
the  entire  party  and  carrying  off  their  man  without 
injury  to  themselves. 

Of  the  fourteen  children  born  to  ]\Ialcolm  and  Janet 
Morrow,  ten  came  to  ]\Iontana  and  eight  are  now  living. 
William  T.,  the  subject  of  this  review,  was  born  in 
Ontario,  near  Kingston,  on  October  26,  1854.  He  was 
yet  a  small  child  when  his  parents  removed  to  this 
country,  and  he  received  his  principal  book-learning 
at  Black  Hawk  Point,  Colorado,  up  to  the  age  of  ten 
years.  After  that  he  was  associated  with  his  father  in 
the  dairy  business  until  about  1878,  at  which  time  his 
father  gave  him  an  interest  in  the  business,  and  since 
that  time  he  has  been  continuously  engaged  in  the 
cattle  business  in  this  section  of  the  country.  He  has 
with  the  passing  years  made  steady  and  consistent 
progress  in  his  business,  and  is  today  ranked  among 
the  leading  cattle-men  of  the  state.  He  is  the  owner 
of  a  thousand  acres  of  ranch  land,  to  which  he  holds 
the  title  deeds,  and  holds  the  leases  to  several  thou- 
sand additional  acres  which  he  utilizes  in  his  business. 

The  children  of  Mr.  Alorrow's  first  marriage  are : 
Mrs.  Robert  Coburn,  deceased;  Malcolm,  Jr.;  William 
T. ;  David;  Mrs.  John  H.  Green;  Mrs.  C.  W.  Fields 
of  Fort  Benton ;  Mrs.  Mort  Strong  of  Sun  River, 
deceased;  Mrs.  Frank  Leedy  of  Helena;  Laura;  Mrs. 
James  Adams,  of  Sun  River,  and  Mrs.  James  Scott 
of  Charleston,  Washington.  By  a  second  marriage 
Mr.  Morrow  became  the  father  of  two  sons,  and  they 
yet  survive  him.  His  first  wife,  the  mother  of  the 
subject,  died  in  Helena,  Montana,  in  June.  1878. 

On  January  23.  1884,  William  T.  Morrow  married 
Miss  Marv  Elizabeth  Bach,  niece  of  Mrs.  Charles  Lee- 
man  of  Helena,  and  the  sister  of  George  Bach,  who 
died  at  Fort  Benton  on  December  23,  1889,  at  the  early 
age  of  twenty-six  years.  Four  children  were  born 
to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morrow,  three  sons  and  one  daughter. 
They  are :  William  G.,  Charles  W.,  Harry  R.  and 
Mary  Elizabeth,  all  of  whom  were  born  at  Fort  Benton. 

Mr.  Morrow  is  a  member  of  the  Odd  Fellows  and 
the  family  are  members  of  the  Presbyterian  church. 

James  Henry  Gallop.  It  did  not  require  the  heroism 
of  that  noble  band  of  men  on  the  deck  of  the  sinking 
Titanic  to  prove  that  personal  courage  belongs  to  the 
American  man,  for  the  annals  of  such  states  as  Mon- 
tana, tell  true  tales  of  wonderful  self-sacrifices,  of  re- 
markable daring  and  of  quiet  bravery  in  the  face  of 
danger.  There  are  those  still  living  whose  lives  have 
been,  as  it  were,  miraculously  preserved,  many  times 
having  been  placed  in  jeopardy  and  on  not  a  few 
occasions,  to  shield  the  helpless.  Among  the  retired 
and  honored  citizens  of  Bozeman,  Montana,  is  Hon. 
James  Henry  Gallop,  whose  experiences  through  years 
of  adventurous  life  might  prove  all  that  has  been  said. 
Mr.  Gallop  was  horn  at  Scipio,  New  York,  February 
10,  1834,  and  is  a  son  of  Jonah  and  Hannah  (Frye) 
Gallop,  who  came  of  English  ancestry. 

In    1839   the   Gallop   family   settled   in   Michigan,   and 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


903 


James  Henry  remained  on  the  homestead  until  the 
death  of  his  mother,  in  1852,  when  he  started  out  to 
work  at  the  carpenter  trade,  with  which  he  was  already 
familiar.  In  traveling  over  Michigan,  Illinois  and 
Indiana,  he  found  a  demand  for  bridge-builders  and  as 
he  was  skilled  in  that  branch  of  his  trade,  as  in  others, 
he  was  kept  very  busy  and  was  reasonably  contented 
until  1862,  when  he  determined  to  go  to  Montana, 
although  in  those  days  this  was  a  great  undertaking. 
From  New  York  he  sailed  for  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
where,  at  present,  he  would  probably  find  trouble  in 
locating  land-marks,  and  by  this  route  reached  San 
Francisco.  The  next  move  was  to  Portland,  Oregon, 
from  there  he  went  up  the  mighty  Columbia  to  Fort 
Wallula,  then  crossed  the  country  to  Walla  Walla. 
At  that  point,  in  partnership  with  Arid  Chidester,  he 
bought  a  pack  of  ponies  and  they  started  for  Florence. 
Mr.  Gallop  relates  how  they  reached  the  Mountain 
House,  but  from  there,  for  sixteen  miles,  the  partners 
had  to  pack  on  their  own  backs.  They  proved  it  pos- 
sible to  get  through  with  goods  and  Mr.  Gallop  saw 
this  as  an  excellent  business  opportunity,  which  he 
took  advantage  of  and  it  was  not  long  before  he  had 
accumulated  several  hundred  dollars,  with  an  income 
sometimes  of  forty  dollars  a  day.  This  money  he  in- 
vested in  prospecting  in  and  around  Florence  and  later 
joined  the  Buffalo  Hump  stampede,  and  before  he  re- 
turned he  passed  through  the  Ross  Hole,  the  Big  Hole 
and  the  Bitter  Root  country,  going  on  down  the  river 
to  Fort  Owen,  and  finally  reached  Elk  City,  later 
returning  to  Florence.  It  was  in  October  of  that  year 
that  Mr.  Gallop  was  stopped  by  a  road  agent,  Pete 
Riggs,  and  seriously  wounded  by  a  man  who  was  later 
identified    and    was    finally    executed    for   other    crimes. 

On  account  of  the  severity  of  his  wound,  Mr.  Gallop 
was  unable  to  work  during  the  following  winter  and 
spent  the  same  with  friends  in  Oregon,  but  in  the  spring 
and  summer  he  tried  mining  on  Clearwater  river,  which 
he  continued  in  the  next  summer,  Oregon  being  chosen 
for  his  winter  home.  He  then  became  interested  with 
John  T.  Silverwood  and  A.  B.  Chidester  in  the  pur- 
chase of  the  Montana  House,  which  was  conveniently 
located  within  a  few  miles  of  Clearwater  bridge,  and 
in  the  following  spring  2\1t.  Gallop  sold  his  interest  in 
the  property  for  $1,200  and  went  into  the  cattle  busi- 
ness. In  March  following  he  bought  forty-five  head 
of  cattle,  mainly  cows,  locating  at  Magpie,  Montana, 
where  he  pre-empted  160  acres  of  land  and  engaged 
in  stock-raising.  With  this  business  settlement  the 
greater  part  of  his  really  adventurous  life  closed,  but 
the  records  of  several  years  were  replete  with  hard- 
ships and  dangers  that  only  a  brave  man  could  go 
through  and  still  continue  to  face  possible  other  losses 
of  fortune  and  dangers  of  all  kinds.  For  ten  years,  up 
to  1876,  he  remained  in  the  neighborhood  of  Magpie, 
raising  cattle  and  buying  and  selling  produce,  and  in 
1870  opened  a  store  at  Gallatin.  He  had  not  been 
trained,  however,  along  mercantile  lines  and  finding  the 
venture  not  remunerative,  in   1873  disposed  of  it. 

In  1876  Mr.  Gallop  sought  and  found  a  desirable 
ranch  on  which  he  determined  to  establish  a  permanent 
residence,  its  situation  being  twenty-six  miles  north- 
west of  Bozeman,  and  in  April  he  settled  there,  home- 
steading  160  acres,  taking  up  a  desert  claim  of  200 
acres  and  purchasing  a  one-half  section  of  railroad 
land,  still  retaining  at  that  time  his  pre-emption  at  ]\Iag- 
pie.  Farming  and  stock-raising  were  his  industries.  His 
Durham  cattle  and  his  Norman  horses  becoming  noted 
all  over  the  state.  In  1910  Mr.  Gallop  retired  to 
Bozeman,  selling  his  first  ranch,  March  i.  1910,  for 
$36,000.  The  neighborhood  and  district  adjoining  his 
second  ranch  was  named  Gallop,  in  his  honor,  and  for 
fifteen  years  he  served  as  its  postmaster.  This  ranch 
he  sold  in  December,  1911,  for  $21,600. 

On  July  6,  1873.  Mr.  Gallop  was  married  at  Fort  Ben- 
ton to  Mrs.  Rachel  C.  Hutchinson,  who  was  born  in 
Michigan,  and  is  a  daughter  of  Nathan  Chidester.     Bv 


her  first  marriage  she  had  one  son,  Frank  N.,  who  was 
born  at  Converse,  Michigan,  July  i,  1866,  and  died  in 
Montana,  January  7,  1901.  He  had  been  associated  in 
business  with  Air.  Gallop,  who  regarded  him  with  a 
father's   affection. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Gallop  is  nominally  a 
Republican,  but  in  1898  there  was  a  Silver  Republican 
ticket,  on  which  he  ran  for  county  commissioner,  but 
the  ticket  was  defeated  at  the  polls.  Mr.  Gallop  served 
one  term  as  justice  of  the  peace  and  other  offices  were 
at  his  disposal  for  many  years,  but  his  business  in- 
terests were  too  absorbing  to  give  him  time  to  serve 
in  many  positions  otherwise  than  stated.  He  has  been 
a  very  active  member  of  Pythagoras  Lodge,  No.  2, 
Knights  of  Pythias,  and  during  his  twenty-four  years 
of  membership  has  served  in  all  the  offices  and  on  sev- 
eral occasions  has  been  state  delegate  to  the  Montana 
(;rand  Lodge.  In  1895  Mr.  Gallop  was  elected  presi- 
dent of  the  Pioneers'  Society  of  Gallatin  county,  Mon- 
tana. He  is  interested  in  a  number  of  successful  busi- 
ness enterprises  at  Bozeman  and  keeps  in  touch  with 
all  movements  that  increase  the  city's  prosperity,  often 
advising  and  directing,  being  qualified  through  his 
wealth  of  experience.  He  is  a  representative  man  of 
Gallatin  county. 

Anton  M.  Holter.  In  all  that  has  been  suffered 
and  all  that  has  been  wrought  in  connection  with  the 
development  and  progress  of  the  great  state  of  Mon- 
tana none  has  played  a  more  worthy  part  or  marked 
the  vanishing  years  with  greater  accomplishment  than 
has  Hon.  Anton  M.  Holter,  one  of  the  best  known  and 
most  highly  honored  pioneer  citizens  of  Helena  and 
for  many  years  past  one  of  the  representative  business 
men  of  the  capital  city.  Virtually  half  a  century  rep- 
resents the  period  of  Mr.  Holter's  residence  in  Mon- 
tana, and  this  period  practically  compasses  the  entire 
history  of  this  commonwealth,  both  as  a  territory  and 
a  state.  Here  he  came  when  civilization  was  strug- 
gling to  gain  a  foothold  on  the  frontier;  here  he  was 
a  veritable  pioneer  of  pioneers ;  here  his  constructive 
ability  and  indomitable  energy  early  became  potent  in 
results;  and  here  it  has  been  his  to  achieve  large  and 
substantial  success,  together  with  the  gaining  of  the 
most  impregnable  vantage  place  in  popular  confidence 
and  esteem.  In  the  most  significant  sense  the  archi- 
tect of  his  own  fortunes,  Mr.  Holter,  now  venerable  in 
years,  has  stood  as  one  of  the  strongest  and  noblest 
of  the  Scandinavian  element  of  citizenship  that  has 
wielded  wonderful  influence  in  the  development  and 
upbuilding  of  the  great  empire  of  the  west.  His  ex- 
periences in  connection  with  frontier  life  were  many 
and  varied,  as  may  well  be  inferred,  and  he  was  one 
of  the  leaders  in  the  march  of  civic  and  industrial 
development  and  progress  in  Alontana,  where  he  has 
overcome  seemingly  insuperable  obstacles,  where  he 
has  endured  many  hardships,  vicissitudes  and  reverses, 
and  where  his  courage  and  persistence  finally  won  to 
him  a  most  gracious  independence  and  prosperity.  He 
is  a  man  of  broad  mental  grasp,  of  well  fortified 
opinions  and  has  been  influential  in  public  affairs  as 
well  as  those  of  industrial  and  commercial  order.  Mr. 
Holter  is  to  be  considered  distinctively  as  one  of  the 
founders,  and  builders  of  Montana,  even  as  he  yet 
continues  to  be  one  of  its  most  liberal  and  public- 
spirited  citizens.  He  was  one  of  those  who  kad  pre- 
science of  the  future  greatness  of  the  state,  and  he  was 
foremost  in  the  promoting  of  gigantic  and  important 
enterprises  that  have  made  possil)le  the  consecutive 
development  of  this  favored  commonwealth.  Scarcely 
any  project  advanced  for  the  general  good  of  the 
territory  or  the  state  has  failed  to  find  in  him  a  strong 
and  vigorous  promoter  and  supporter,  and  for  all  time 
his  name  shall  merit  a  place  of  distinction  in  the 
history  of  Montana,  where  he  has  long  lived  and  labored 
to  goodly  ends  and  where  his  circle  of  friends  is 
coincident   with    that   of   his   acquaintances.      His    remi- 


904 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


niscences  of  the  early  days  are  most  graphic  and  in- 
teresting and  the  same  merit  collation  and  publica- 
tion, the  province  of  the  one  at  hand  being  such  as  to 
permit  only  the  briefest  outline  of  his  career.  A  most 
interesting  brochure  was  recently  issued  by  the  Timber- 
man,  a  lumber  paper  published  at  Portland,  Oregon, 
the  text  of  which  was  an  article  prepared  by  Mr. 
Holter  and  entitled  "Pioneer  Lumbering  in  Montana." 
In  this  pamphlet  he  gives  a  most  interesting  account 
of  many  of  his  experiences  in  the  pioneer  days  of 
Montana, — a  record  which  it  is  possible  for  him  to 
amplify  indefinitely,  in  the  production  of  equally  valu- 
able historic  data. 

Anton  M.  Holter  was  born  in  the  little  seaport  town 
of  Moss,  on  a  fjord  thirty-two  miles  south  of  Chris- 
tiania,  Norway,  and  the  date  of  his  nativity  was  June 
29,  1831.  He  is  a  son  of  Foin  and  Berta  M.  (Floxstad) 
Holter. 

Ambitious  and  self-reliant,  of  alert  mentality  and 
vigorous  physical  powers,  Mr.  Holter  finally  determined 
to  seek  his  fortunes  in  America,  to  which  country  a 
tide  of  immigration  was  setting  in  from  the  Norseland 
countries,  with  the  result  that  he  had  learned  much 
concerning  opportunities  afforded  in  the  New  World. 
He  matured  his  plans,  and  on  the  8th  of  April,  1854, 
about  two  months  prior  to  his  twenty-third  birthday 
anniversary,  Mr.  Holter,  in  company  with  others  of 
his  countrymen,  set  sail  for  Quebec.  They  arrived  in 
the  Canadian  city  on  the  25th  of  the  following  month. 
They  thence  set  forth  by  railroad  for  the  United 
States,  and  this  was  Mr.  Holter's  first  experience  in 
railway  traveling, — an  experience  which  proved  most 
disconcerting  and  sorrowful,  since  in  an  accident  to  the 
train  five  members  of  his  party  were  killed,  while  others 
were  severely  injured.  Upon  arriving  at  Rock  Island, 
Illinois,  it  was  reported  that  some  of  the  immigrants 
has  suffered  attacks  of  cholera,  and  the  quarantine 
officers  forthwith  were  on  the  alert,  besides  which  none 
of  the  immigrants  could  gain  accommodations  in  any 
of  the  hotels  or  lodging  houses.  Mr.  Holter,  de- 
termined not  to  be  detained  and  scarcely  knowing 
what  was  the  difficulty,  as  he  had  no  knowledge  of 
English,  seized  his  trunk  and  forced  his  way  through 
the  quarantine  ranks  to  a  boat  on  which  he  embarked, 
without  any  idea  as  to  the  destination  of  the  vessel. 
He  proceeded  up  the  Mississippi  on  this  boat  and  finally 
made  his  way  to  Freeport,  near  Decorah,  Iowa,  where 
he  joined  one  of  his  boyhood  friends  and  where  he 
soon  found  employment  at  his  trade.  He  received  for 
his  services  twenty  dollars  a  month,  twice  the  amount 
given  him  for  a  whole  year's  labor  in  his  native  land, 
and  the  young  immigrant  accordingly  gained  renewed 
faith  in  the  tales  he  had  heard  concerning  the  wonderful 
opportunities  in  America.  His  initiative  faculty  did  not 
long  remain  in  abeyance,  and  he  carefully  saved  his 
earnings  and  began  to  speculate  in  town  lots,  upon  a 
modest  scale,  with  the  result  that  at  the  end  of  the 
year  he  had  accumulated  property  valued  at  three 
hundred  dollars. 

Mr.  Holter  passed  the  winter  of  1855-6  in  working 
at  his  trade  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  and  in 
assisting  in  construction  work  on  the  line  of  the  Mis- 
souri Pacific  Railroad,  which  was  being  extended  to 
Jefferson  City,  that  state.  In  the  meanwhile  he  had 
passed  some  time  in  the  state  of  Iowa,  and  returning 
to  that  state,  he  passed  the  major  part  of  the  ensuing 
four  years  at  Osage,  the  judicial  center  of  Mitchell 
county,  so  that  he  was  thus  identified  for  a  time  with 
the  pioneer  activities  of  the  Hawkeye  state.  Within 
the  period  mentioned  he  made  several  trips  into  the 
Sioux  Indian  country  in  western  Iowa  and  Missouri, 
and  on  one  of  these  expeditions  he  was  among  the  first 
to  arrive  on  the  scene  of  the  historic  Spirit  Lake 
massacre. 

In  the  spring  of  i860,  ]\Ir.  Holter  joined  the  hegira 
to  the  newly  discovered  gold  fields  in  the  Pike's  Peak 
district    of    Colorado,    to    which    territory    adventurous 


gold-seekers  had  been  flocking  in  large  numbers  within 
the  precedmg  year.  In  Colorado  he  was  joined  by  his 
brother,  Martm  M.,  and  they  were  fairly  successful  in 
their  mining  and  farming  operations.  Concerning  his 
initial  identification  with  Montana  Mr.  Holter  himself 
has  given  the  following  account,  which  is  well  worthy 
of  reproduction,  and  in  the  connection  it  will  be  re- 
called that  during  his  sojourn  in  Colorado  the  present 
state  was  known  as  Jefferson  Territory.  His  state- 
ments, appearing  in  his  article  on  pioneer  lumberino- 
in  Montana,  are  as  follows :  "After  three  years'  resi- 
dence at  Pike's  Peak  I  returned  to  my  former  home  in 
Iowa,  and  in  the  spring  of  1863  started,  with  a  team 
of  oxen,  back  to  Colorado,  where  I  stopped  about  six 
weeks.  During  this  time  a  company  of  two  hundred 
men  was  organized  to  go  to  what  was  then  called 
Stmking  Water,  Idaho,  but  what  is  now  known  as 
Ruby  River,  in  Madison  county,  Montana.  This  com- 
pany left  Colorado  on  September  16,  1863.  It  was  well 
organized,  having  a  captain  and  other  officers,  and  was 
governed  by  a  formal  set  of  rules  and  regulations. 
The  weather  was  pleasant  and  the  food  for  the  stock 
was  excellent.  Hunting  and  fishing  were  especially 
fine,— too  much  so,  in  fact,  for  so  much  time  was  spent 
in  sport  that  we  made  slow  progress,  and  finally  a  Mr. 
Eyenson,  with  whom  I  had  formed  a  partnership  and 
with  whom  I  afterward  did  business  under  the  firm 
name  of  Hoher  &  Evenson,  and  myself  became  fearful 
that  we  would  be  unable  to  reach  our  destination  before 
winter,  and  we  decided  it  was  best  for  us  to  leave  the 
train  and  strike  out  for  ourselves  at  a  greater  rate  of 
speed.  We  had  purchased  a  second-hand  saw-mil!  out- 
fit, intending  to  go  into  the  lumbering  business  on  reach- 
ing our  destination.  There  were  yet  at  least  a  thousand 
miles  to  cover,  so  one  morning  we  yoked  up  our  oxen 
and  struck  out  alone.  During  the  night  a  few  more 
teams  overtook  us,  and  every  night  thereafter  other 
teams  caught  up  with  us,  until  we  were  about  forty 
souls  in  all.  We  had  some  heavy  snow  storms  during 
November,  but  finally  reached  Bevin's  Gulch,  our  tem- 
porary destination,  about  eighteen  miles  from  Virginia 
City,  Montana.  The  remainder  of  the  company,  how- 
ever, got  snowed  in,  and,  so  far  as  I  ever  learned, 
never  reached  Montana. 

"Mr.    Evenson   and   I   finally   selected   a   location   for 
our    saw    mill,    and    after    considerable     hardship    we 
reached    the    top    of    the    divide    between    Bevin's    and 
Ramshorn  gulches,  on  December  7th.     There  we  went 
into    temporary    camp,    with    no    shelter    beyond    that 
afforded    by   a    large   spruce   tree.      As    the    snow    was 
getting  deep  and  there  was  no  feed  for  stock,  I  started 
the    next   morning    for    Virginia    City,— eighteen    miles 
distant, — with  the  cattle,  hoping  to  sell  them.     Finding 
no  buyer,  I  started  to  take  them  out  to  the  ranch  of 
an  acquaintance,   twenty-five  miles   down   the    Stinking 
Water.     On  the  way  I  was  held  up  and  robbed  by  the 
notorious  George  Ives  and  his  companion,  Irvin.    After 
I  had  complied  with  Mr.  Ives'  command  to  hand  him 
my  purse  I  was  ordered  to  drive  on.     He  still  held  his 
revolver   in  his  hand,  which   looked   suspicious   to  me, 
so,  in  speaking  to  my  team  I  quickly  turned  my  head 
and  found  that  he  had  his  revolver  leveled  on  me,  taking 
sight  at  my  head.     Instantly  I  dodged  as  the  shot  went, 
and  I  received  the  full  force  of  the  unexploded  powder 
in   my    face,    the   bullet   passing   through    my    hat    and 
hair.     It  stunned   me  for  an   instant,   and   I    staggered 
against_  the   near   leader,    accidentally   getting    my   arm 
over  his  neck,  which  prevented  me  from   falling.     Al- 
most at  once  I  regained  my  senses  and  faced  Ives,  who 
had  his  pistol  lowered,  but  who  raised  it  with  a  jerk, 
pointing  at  my  breast.     I  heard  the  click  of  the  ham- 
mer, but  the  gun  missed  fire.     I  ran  around  the  oxen, 
which  became  very  much  excited,  and  my  coming  in  a 
rush  on  the  other  side  scared  them  still  more,  and  they 
rushed  against   Ives'   horse,   which   in  turn  got   into   a 
tangle  with  Irvin's  horse,  and   during  the  confusion   I 
struck  out  for  some  beaver  dams  which  I  noticed  close 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


905 


by,  but  the  men  soon  got  control  of  their  horses,  and, 
to  my  agreeable  surprise,  they  started  off  in  the  oppo- 
site direction.  What  had  apparently  changed  their  pur- 
pose was  the  sight  which  now  met  my  eyes  also,  that 
of  a  man  who  had  just  appeared  over  the  hill  and  who 
was  driving  a  horse  team,  with  which  he  had  approached 
to  a  point  near  us.  I  learned  afterward  that  Ives  and 
Irvin  had  stopped  at  Laurin,  about  two  miles  from  the 
point  where  they  overtook  me,  and  that  Ives  had  fired 
five  shots  at  the  bottles  on  the  shelves  because  the  bar- 
tender refused  them  whiskey,  this  accounting  for  the 
fact  that  only  one  charge  was  left  in  his  revolver  when 
he  attacked  me.  At  the  camp,  the  next  day,  Mr.  Even- 
son  disfigured  my  face  badly  in  extracting  the  powder. 
So,  with  my  face  bandaged  up,  in  the  cold  and  the 
snow,  we  managed  to  build  a  brush  road  on  grade 
around  a  steep  mountain  to  our  mill  location  on  the 
creek.  We  made  a  hand-sled  with  cross-beams  extend- 
ing outside  the  runners  far  enough  so  that  when  neces- 
sary we  were  able  to  nip  it  along  with  handspikes  on 
each  side.  With  this  hand-sled  we  removed  our  outfit 
to  the  creek,  and  we  did  all  the  logging  this  way  during 
the  entire  winter.  We  first  built  a  cabin  and  a  black- 
smith shop,  but  the  latter  soon  became  more  of  a  ma- 
chine shop,  for  when  we  came  to  erect  the  saw  mill 
we  met  with  what  seemed  insurmountable  difficulties. 
As  I  knew  nothing  about  a  saw  mill  I  had  left  the  pur- 
chase of  the  outfit  to  Mr.  Evenson,  who  claimed  to  be 
a  millwright  by  profession,  but  it  developed  that  he 
had  either  been  very  careless  in  inspecting  this  machin- 
ery or  that  he  had  not  understood  it,  for  so  much  of  it 
was  missing  that  it  seemed  impossible  to  get  a  working- 
mill  out  of  the  material  at  hand.  As  there  was  no 
foundry  or  machine  shop  in  this  part  of  the  country, 
we  were  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do,  but  were  deter- 
mined to  erect  a  saw  mill  of  some  kind,  so  out  of  our 
rubber  coats  and  whip-sawed  lumber  we  made  a  black- 
smith bellows,  then  we  burned  a  pit  of  charcoal,  while 
a  broad  axe  driven  into  a  stump  served  as  an  anvil. 
Mr.  Evenson  knew  a  little  about  blacksmithing,  so  I 
began  to  feel  somewhat  at  ease,  but  soon  discovered 
what  seemed  to  be  the  worst  obstacle  yet.  This  was 
that  we  had  no  gearing  for  the  log  carriage,  not  even 
the  track  irons  or  pinion,  and  to  devise  some  mechan- 
ism that  would  give  the  carriage  the  forward  and  re- 
verse movement  became  the  paramount  problem.  After 
a  great  deal  of  thought  and  experimenting  we  finally 
succeeded  in  inventing  a  device  which  years  later  was 
patented  and  widely  used  under  the  name  of  the  "rope 
feed."  Incidentally  I  may  say  that  we  found  this  to 
be  such  an  excellent  appliance  that  we  later  used  it  in 
most  of  our  portable  mills,  and  I  have  been  informed 
that  several  manufacturers  used  and  recommended  this, 
charging  an  additional  three  hundred  dollars  for  it  on 
small  mills. 

"However,  returning  to  the  point,  in  order  to  con- 
struct this  we  had  first  to  build  a  turning  lathe,  and 
when  we  began  to  turn  iron  shafting  it  took  much  ex- 
perimenting before  we  learned  to  temper  the  chisels  so 
that  they  would  stand  the  cutting  of  iron.  To  turn  the 
shaftmg,  which  we  made  out  of  iron  wagon-axles,  Even- 
son  would  hold  the  chisel  and  I,  with  a  rawhide  strap, 
wrapped  around  the  shafting,  taking  hold  with  a  hand 
on  each  end  of  the  strap,  would  give  a  steady,  hard 
pull  with  the  right  hand  until  the  left  touched  the  piece 
we  were  working  on,  then  reverse,  repeating  the  process 
until  the  work  was  finished.  These  were  strenuous 
days,  and  we  worked  early  and  late  in  the  face  of  most 
discouraging  circumstances.  We  manufactured  enough, 
timber  for  the  sixteen-foot  overshot  waterwheel,  the 
flume,  etc.  As  we  were  short  of  belting,  we  made  it 
out  of  untanned  ox-hide,  and  it  worked  well  enough  in 
the  start.  We  finally  got  the  mill  started,  and  we 
sawed  about  five  thousand  feet  of  lumber  before  we  had 
a  beast  of  burden  in  the  camp." 

The   foregoing   account   of    Mr.   Holter's   determined 
efforts  in  the  development  of  the  industrial  enterprise. 


of  which  he  was  one  of  the  first  representatives  in  Mon- 
tana is  given  reproduction  simply  to  indicate  the  ad- 
verse circumstances  and  conditions  which  he  had  to 
face.  It  would  be  impossible  to  enter  into  full  details 
concerning  his  subsequent  operations  along  this  line, 
but  it  may  be  said  that  his  progress  was  marked  by 
many  difficulties  and  exactions,  against  which  he  held 
himself  imperturbed  to  as  great  an  extent  as  possible. 
Competition  was  aggressive  and  insolent,  miners  di- 
verted the  water  demanded  for  the  operation  of  the 
original  mill,  and  one  difficulty  after  another  had  to  be 
adjusted.  Needing  more  machinery  for  the  second  sea- 
son of  mill  operations,  Mr.  Evenson  proceeded  to  Den- 
ver to  obtain  the  equipment,  but  learning  of  the  fabulous 
prices  that  were  being  paid  for  flour,  nails,  and  other 
supplies,  he  invested  the  money  in  such  commodities  in- 
stead of  buying  the  requisite  machinery.  On  the  return 
trip  he  encountered  heavy  storm  and  lost  not  only  an 
appreciable  portion  of  his  freight,  but  also  a  number  of 
his  teams.  The  goods  which  he  succeeded  in  bringing 
through  to  Montana  were  sold  at  a  high  price,  but  the 
venture  as  a  whole  proved  unprofitable  in  a  financial 
way. 

Concerning  the  progressive  policies  which  were  fol- 
lowed by  Mr.  Holter  and  which  brought  about  his  use 
of  more  modern  appliances  in  his  lumber  business  it  is 
unnecessary  to  speak  in  detail,  but  it  should  be  noted 
that  it  was  due  to  him  that  the  first  planing  mill  was 
established  in  Montana,  and  that  his  operations  were 
extended  to  cover  virtually  all  of  the  principal  mining 
camps  in  the  territory.  Other  mills  were  established, 
with  team  power,  lumber  prices  became  depressed,  and 
partnership  relations  proved  unsatisfactory,  with  the 
result  that  Mr.  Holter  finally  purchased  Mr.  Evenson's 
interest  in  the  business  which  they  controlled,  and 
formed  a  partnership  with  his  brother,  Martin  Holter, 
under  the  firm  name  of  A.  M.  Holter  &  Brother.  By 
the  two  brothers  the  first  planing  mill  in  Montana  was 
established  in  the  summer  of  1865,  and  the  same  was 
operated  in  conjunction  with  the  saw  mill  which  they 
had  established  on  Ten  Mile  creek,  about  eight  miles 
distant  from  Helena.  The  firm  maintained  headquarters 
both  at  Virginia  City  and  Helena.  In  speaking  of  con- 
ditions of  the  lumber  business,  Mr.  Holter  has  written 
the  following  succinct  statement,  touching  matters  after 
he  had  made  a  trip  to  the  east  for  the  purpose  of  pur- 
chasing new  machinery: 

"I  arrived  in  Helena  on  the  17th  of  May  and  found 
the  lumber  business  in  a  bad  way.  The  firm  of  A.  M. 
Holter  &  Brother  had  closed  the  mill  with  the  first  snow 
storm  in  the  fall  and  had  sent  all  the  live  stock  to  win- 
ter quarters,  so  in  a  short  time  they  were  out  of  lumber 
and  also  out  of  business.  My  first  move  was  to  hurry 
the  men  after  live  stock  and  to  prepare  to  start  the  mill. 
Shortly  after  I  had  left  Helena  in  1866  the  cutting  of 
prices  began,  and  from  this  time  on  the  custom  of  sell- 
ing for  what  you  could  get  prevailed.  The  prices  ob- 
tained by  A.  M.  Hoher  &  Brother  for  the  year  1867 
and  up  to  August,  1868,  averaged  about  fifty  dollars 
for  common  lumber  and  sixty  dollars  per  thousand  feet 
for  sluice,  flume,  and  the  better  grades,  but  during  the 
month  of  August  we  reduced  these  prices  ten  dollars 
per  thousand,  without  consultation  with  other  dealers. 
We  had  reduced  the  price  of  planing-mill  work  to 
twenty-five  and  twenty  dollars  per  thousand,  according 
to  quantity  and  ten  dollars  for  surfacing.  Shingles  sold 
for  six  dollars  and  lath  for  twelve  dollars.  We  main- 
tained the  prices  on  the  last  three  items,  as  we  had  no 
competition  on  these.  I  finally  got  the  mill  started  and 
also  erected  a  new  mill  on  Spring  creek.  Several  more 
mills  sprang  up  in  the  vicinity  of  Helena,  mostly  oper- 
ated by  inexperienced  men,  on  borrowed  capital,  at  a 
high  rate  of  interest,  so  they  soon  came  to  grief.  I 
bought  up  some  of  these  saw  mills  in  1868  and  1869. 
We  also  added  to  our  holdings  a  water  mill  near  Jeffer- 
san  City,  in  Jefferson  county,  and  a  portable  steam  mill 


906 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


that   we   located   near   Lincoln,   in   what   is   now   Lewis 
and   Clark   county." 

In  1868  Mr.  Holter  and  his  brother  established,  in 
Helena,  the  first  sash  and  door  factory  in  Montana,  and 
the  plant  was  operated  by  them  until  October,  1879, 
when  it  was  destroyed  by  fire.  Mr.  Holter  continued 
one  of  the  foremost  figures  in  the  lumber  industry  for 
many  years,  and  was  the  pioneer  in  establishing  a  lum- 
ber business  at  Great  Falls,  in  1886,  where  operations 
still  continue.  In  1889  Mr.  Holter  became  associated 
with  William  Thompson  in  the  organization  of  the  Mon- 
tana Lumber  &  Manufacturing  Company,  operating  in 
the  western  part  of  the  new  state,  with  main  offices  in 
Helena  and  Butte.  Later  he  was  actively  identified  with 
lumbering  operations  in  Idaho,  Oregon,  and  Alaska, 
and  no  one  has  stood  so  clearly  as  an  authority  in  this 
field  of  enterprise  in  Montana  as  this  venerable  and 
honored  citizen  of  Helena.  In  1867  he  became  asso- 
ciated with  his  brother  in  the  establishing  of  a  general- 
merchandise  business  at  Helena,  and  the  same  was 
finally  changed  into  a  general  hardware  business,  which 
is  now  conducted  under  the  title  of  the  A.  M.  Holter 
Hardware  Company  and  which  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant and  extensive  enterprises  of  the  kind  in  the 
entire  northwest,  the  trade  being  both  wholesale  and 
retail. 

The  progressive  ideas  and  liberality  of  Mr.  Holter 
have  been  manifested  along  many  lines,  and  he  is  one 
of  those  who  have  done  much  to  further  the  develop- 
ment and  upbuilding  of  the  state  that  has  long  repre- 
sented his  home.  In  1890  he  with  others  made  applica- 
tion for  the  use  of  the  waters  of  the  Missouri  river 
near  Helena  for  power  purposes  and  had  a  bill  enacted 
by  congress  permitting  a  dam  to  be  erected  across  the 
river.  This  was  the  start  of  hydro-electric  development 
in  Montana.  Mr.  Holter  was  also  one  of  the  organizers 
and  incorporators  of  the  company  that  established  the 
first  water-works  system  in  Montana,  this  having  been 
the  Virginia  City  Water  Works  Company,  which  was 
incorporated  in  January,  1865.  The  installation  of  the 
system  was  attended  with  great  difficulties,  owing  to 
the  meager  facilities  available.  Water  was  to  be  carried 
a  distance  of  two  miles,  and  the  pipe  were  made  of  logs 
through  which  a  three-inch  hole  was  bored  by  means 
of  an  augur  that  was  made  by  hand  in  a  local  blacksmith 
shop.  These  primitive  conduits  were  fitted  into  each 
other  by  the  tapering  of  one  end  into  the  proper  aper- 
ture in  the  next  log,  and  an  iron  band  was  placed  about 
the  outside  log  to  prevent  the  bursting.  These  bands 
in  many  instances  had  previously  done  service  as  wagon 
hubs  on  vehicles  that  had  been  brought  across  the  plains, 
and  the  faucets  and  valves  were  made  by  hand.  Mr. 
Holter's  natural  mechanical  genius  came  into  effective 
play  in  this  connection  at  many  times  when  the  prob- 
lem of  construction  and  service  seemed  impossible  of 
practical  solution. 

In  1875  Mr.  Holter  and  his  brother  bought  from  Fred- 
erick Utsch.  a  German  inventor,  the  rights  to  manu- 
facture what  was  known  as  the  Utsch  Jig,  a  machine 
for  concentrating  ore.  This  was  the  first  jigging  ma- 
chine ever  worked  successfully  in  the  mining  business 
and  was  probably  the  most  valuable  and  effective,  in 
promoting  the  mining  industry  ever  introduced  in  the 
northwest  and  first  used  successfully  at  the  Bunker  Hill 
Sullivan  mine,  Wardner,  Idaho.  In  1898  he  was  actively 
concerned  in  the  organization  of  the  Sand  Point  Lum- 
ber Company,  at  Sand  Point,  Idaho,  the  same  being  now 
known  as  the  Hambird  Lumber  Company.  In  a  general 
way  the  following  characterization  made  by  one  familiar 
with  the  career  of  Mr.  Holter  is  of  special  significance, 
by  reason  of  its  absolute  consistency :  "He  is  one  of 
those  rugged,  indornitable  spirits  to  whom  the  com- 
ing generation  inhabiting  the  northwest,  and  especially 
Montana,  will  owe  in  a  large  degree  the  magnificent 
heritage  that  awaits  them."  Further  than  this  it  may 
be  said  that  Mr.  Holter  is  a  man  of  distinctive  culture 
and  one  deeply  appreciative  of  the  finer  ideals  and  more 


gracious  social  amenities  of  life,  and  that  his  broad 
mentality  and  fine  constructive  and  administrative  pow- 
ers have  been  exercised  most  effectively  in  positions  of 
distinctive  public  trust. 

Admirably  fortified  in  his  political  convictions,  Mr. 
Holter  has  been  a  consistent  and  resolute  advocate  of 
the  principles  and  policies  of  the  Republican  party,  and 
his  faith  has  not  wavered  in  the  face  of  recent  party 
reverses.  He  had  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  Re- 
publican ever  elected  to  office  in  the  city  of  Helena.  In 
1878  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  territorial  legis- 
lature, and  in  1888  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  city 
council  of  Helena,  of  which  municipal  body  he  was 
chosen  president.  In  1889  he  was  elected  a  riiember  of 
the  house  of  representatives  of  the  new  state,  and  he 
had  much  to  do  with  shaping  the  fundamental  policies 
and  laws  of  the  commonwealth  which  has  honored 
and  been  honored  by  him.  He  has  served  as  president 
of  the  Helena  board  of  trade  and  has  been  identified 
with  eyery  progressive  movement  for  the  benefit  of 
the  capital  city.  He  was  one  of  those  primarily  instru- 
mental in  securing  to  Helena  its  present  fine  hig'h  school 
building.  He  erected  the  Holter  block,  in  which  his 
hardware  business  is  conducted,  and  also  his  attractive 
residence,  on  North  Benton  avenue — a  home  known  for 
its  gracious  and  unostentatious  hospitality.  He  retains 
a  deep  interest  in  all  that  touches  the  welfare  and  his- 
tory of  his  home  city  and  state  and  is  one  of  the  active 
and  valued  members  of  the  Montana  Pioneer  Society, 
of  which  he  has  served  as  president.  He  is  affiliated 
with  the  Masonic  fraternity,  in  which  he  has  received 
the  chivalric  degrees  in  the  Helena  commandery  of 
Knights  Templars,  and  his  religious  views  are  in  har- 
mony with  the  tenets  of  the  Lutheran  church,  in  whose 
faith  he  was  reared,  Mrs.  Holter  being  a  communicant 
of  the   Protestant  Episcopal  church. 

At  present,  in  his  eighty-second  year,  he  is  strong 
mentally  and  physically.  In  addition  to  his  own  busi- 
ness affairs  he  finds  time  to  attend  to  work  pertaining 
to  the  public  good.  He  and  a  few  other  admirers  of 
the  late  Wilbur  Fisk  Sanders  met  a  few  years  ago  and 
decided  to  place  in  the  State  Capitol  building  a  statue 
to  perpetuate  his  memory.  'Sir.  Holter  was  elected 
president  of  the  association  formed.  From  this  begin- 
ning the  last  legislature  enacted  a  bill  creating  the 
Sanders  memorial  conmiission,  ]\Ir.  Holter  president. 
The  work  of  this  body  is  now  nearly  finished  and  the 
statue  about  ready  to  be  put  in  place. 

Judge  F.  K.  Armstrong,  Mr.  Jno.  M.  Holt,  and  Mr. 
Holter  have  just  appraised  and  purchased  for  the 
state  the  state  hospital  for  the  insane  from  private 
owners.  These  men  were  appointed  by  the  governor, 
and  their  appraisal  was  approved  by  the  voters  of  the 
state  at  the  last  election. 

In  1867,  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  was  solemnized  the 
marriage  of  Mr.  Holter  to  Miss  Mary  Pauline  Loberg, 
who,  like  himself,  is  a  native  of  Norway,  and  their 
home  life  has  been  one  of  ideal  associations  and  in- 
fluences. Concerning  their  children  brief  record  is 
given  in  the  concluding  paragraph   of  this  review. 

Norman  B.,  who  was  graduated  in  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, in  the  city  of  New  York,  as  a  member  of  the 
class  of  1891,  is  vice-president  of  the  A.  M.  Holter 
Hardware  Company  and  secretary  of  the  Holter  Com- 
pany, besides  having  the  active  supervision  of  the  ex- 
tensive business  interests  built  up  by  his  honored  father. 
He  is  one  of  the  prominent  and  popular  factors  in  the 
business  and  social  activities  of  Helena  and  is  well 
upholding  the  high  prestige  of  the  name  which  he 
bears.  He  wedded  Miss  Florence  Jefferis,  daughter  of 
Charles  M.  and  Sarah  (Bell)  Jefferis,  of  Helena,  and 
the  two  children  of  this  union  are  Marian  and  Richard 
M.  Clara  H.,  the  second  child  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch,  is  the  widow  of  Percy  H.  Kennett,  who  was  a 
stepson  of  Hon.  Samuel  T.  Hauser,  who  was  the  first 
resident  governor  of  the  territory  of  ^Montana,  and  the 
surviving    children    of    this    union    are    Holter    P.    and 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


907 


George  H.  Edwin  O.  prepared  for  Yale  University 
in  historic  old  Phillips-Exeter  Academy,  at  Exeter, 
New  Hampshire,  and  after  his  graduation  in  Yale,  in 
1894,  he  entered  the  law  department  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, in  which  he  likewise  was  graduated.  He  is 
now  engaged  in  the  successful  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion in  New  York  City.  He  married  Miss  Sarah  Sage, 
daughter  of  Dean  Sage,  of  Albany,  New  York,  and 
they  have  four  children — Sarah,  Elizabeth.  Mary,  and 
Edwin  O.,  Jr.  Albert  L.,  the  next  in  order  of  birth, 
was  likewise  afforded  the  advantages  of  Phillips-Exeter 
Academy,  and  is  one  of  the  well  known  and  popular 
young  business  men  of  Helena.  He  has  been  a  zeal- 
ous worker  in  the  ranks  of  the  Republican  party  and 
has  served  as  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  his  native 
state.  Austin  M.  died  at  the  age  of  five  years.  Aubrey 
M.,  after  a  preparatory  course  in  the  Taft  School,  at 
Watertown,  Connecticut,  entered  Yale  University,  in 
which  he  was  graduated  in  1905,  and  he  is  now  treasurer 
of  the  A.  M.  Holter  Hardware  Company.  Percy  W., 
the  youngest  of  the  children,  was  graduated  in  Yale 
University,  as  a  member  of  the  class  of  1907,  and  died, 
in  Helena,  on  the  23d  of  November.  1908,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-three  years.  He  married  Miss  Emma  Gamer, 
daughter  of  Frederick  Gamer,  of  Helena. 

Mrs.  Maky  P.  Holter.  On  December  5,  1912,  oc- 
curred the  death  of  Mrs.  Mary  P.  Holter,  wife  of  A. 
M.  Holter,  of  Helena,  at  the  family  home  on  Benton 
avenue,  after  a  lingering  illness  resultant  from  a  fall 
she  received  some  two  years  ago.  It  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  say  when  the  passing  of  a  pioneer  citizen  of 
Helena  has  caused  such  widespread  and  such  poignant 
sorrow  in  the  community  as  has  the  death  of  Mrs. 
Holter.  For  almost  half  a  century  Mrs.  Holter  had 
made  her  home  in  this  city,  and  her  true  worth  has 
long  been  recognized  among  the  people  who  have 
shared  in  her  acquaintance  and  who  have  benefited  by 
the  many  noble  qualities  which  illumined  her  every- 
day life  and  made  brighter  the  pathways  of  so  many 
who  were  unfortunate  and  "acquainted  with  grief." 

Born  at  Modum,  Norway,  on  June  6,  1841,  Mary  P. 
(Loberg)  Holter  came  to  this  country  in  young  wom- 
anhood and  in  Chicago  married  A.  ^I.  Holter  on  April 
5,  1867,  he  having  come  from  Montana  to  meet  his 
bride  at  that  point.  In  that  same  year  she  accompanied 
her  husband  on  his  return  to  Montana,  which  state 
has  ever  since  represented  her  home,  and  held  her 
chiefest   interests. 

Her  life  in  Helena  was  from  the  first  a  blessing  to 
the  new  and  rough  mining  country.  Coming  to  the 
town  as  a  bride,  she  took  up  her  existence  in  a  rough 
cabin,  and  all  the  hardships  incident  to  pioneer  life  in 
the  untaught  west  was  her  lot  ia  those  early  years. 
Conditions  existing  then  may  better  be  imagined  than 
described,  but  Mrs.  Holter  bore  her  lot  cheerfully  and 
without  complaint,  happy  to  share  the  humble  home  of 
her  husband,  which  was  one  of  the  bright  spots  of  the 
mining  camp  in  the  days  when  homes  were  the  excep- 
tion, and  not  the  rule.  Few  women,  indeed,  had  the 
hardihood  to  attempt  life  in  the  new  country,  but  those 
who  did  found  in  Mrs.  Holter  a  friend  in  those  times 
when  only  a  woman  could  minister  to  their  needs,  and 
none  knew  her  but  to  love  her.  As  years  went  by,  con- 
ditions in  Helena  changed  vastly  for  the  better.  The 
mining  camp  gave  way  to  a  city  which  has  experienced 
a  wonderful  growth  and  prosperity,  but  the  good  of- 
fices of  Mrs.  Holter  have  ever  been  in  demand.  None 
in  need  of  sympathy  or  of  material  aid  have  ever  gone 
out  from  her  empty,  and  in  unnumbered  cases  she 
has  sought  out  those  who  were  burdened  with  earth's 
cares  and  given  unsolicited  aid  to  those  who  would 
have  gone  on  alone  with  the  struggle.  Her  life  has 
been  a  shining  light  in  Helena  for  fifty  years,  and  she 
will  long  be  remembered  by  untold  numbers  who  have 
every  cause  to  bless  her  name. 

In  an  editorial  entitled  "The  Woman  Pioneer,"  which 


appeared  in  the  Montana  Dailv  Record  just  following 
the  death  of  Mrs.  Holter,  the  following  tribute  is  paid 
to  her  memory,  which  is  deemed  worthy  of  perpetuat- 
ing in  this  manner:  "The  death  of  Mrs.  A.  M.  Holter 
in  this  city  yesterday  brings  forcibly  to  attention  the 
part  the  woman  pioneers  played  in  the  making  of  this 
state.  In  the  case  of  Mrs.  Holter,  her  life  in  Montana 
was  spent  in  the  Capital  city,  and  among  the  earliest 
women  in  Last  Chance  camp  she  became  through  her 
charities,  her  womanly  qualities,  her  unselfish  services 
to  the  sick  and  unfortunate,  more  prominent  than 
others.  This  prominence  was  not  of  her  own  volition, 
but  simply  because,  while  much  of  her  work  was  un- 
known to  any  save  herself  and  the  recipient,  in  hun- 
dreds of  instances  those  whom  she  assisted  did  not 
confine  their  expressions  of  gratitude  to  the  one  who 
had  been  a  'friend  in  need.' 

"Mrs.  Holter  was  a  type  of  those  good  women 
whose  presence  in  Montana  in  the  early  '6o's  made  the 
permanent  settlement  of  the  territory  possible.  The 
men  who  came  here  in  the  early  days  arrived  with  the 
intention  of  'making  a  stake  and  then  going  back 
home.'  They  underwent  many  hardships,  they  lived  in 
a  crude  way.  with  that  one  object  in  view — winning  a 
fortune  and  leaving.  It  required  the  presence  of  good 
women  to  make  homes,  and  Mrs.  Holter  was  one  of 
those  who  did  her  part  in  the  home  making.  Scat- 
tered over  the  territory,  in  mining  camps,  in  out  of  the 
way  places,  were  other  women,  some  of  them  women 
of  mature  years  who  had  pioneered  in  other  sections, 
others  w^ho  came  as  brides,  as  did  Mrs.  Holter,  to  a 
country  in  which  were  lacking  all  the  finer  things  they 
had  known  in  the  east.  These  women,  while  they  have 
not  occupied  the  place  in  the  public  eye  which  the  men 
pioneers  have,  nevertheless  did  as  much  and  as  great 
work  in  building  the  state  as  did  their  husbands. 

"When  Montana  honors  the  memory  of  the  pioneers 
by  the  erection  of  a  monument,  there  must  be  two — 
one  surmounted  by  the  figure  of  a  man,  the  other  by 
that  of  a  woman." 

Mrs.  Holter  was  a  communicant  of  St.  Peter's  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  church  of  Helena,  and  was  active  in 
all  the  good  works  of  her  parish  for  many  years,  but 
she  never  confined  her  benefactions  to  those  with  whom 
she  was  affiliated  in  a  churchly  way ;  rather  were  her 
greatest  and  best  works  done  among  those  who  knew 
no  church  life.  Not  only  was  she  active  in  private 
charities  and  l^eneficences,  but  she  did  what  she  could 
in  public  affairs,  and  her  example  and  influence  was  a 
potent  force  in  the  entire  community  during  her  life. 
She  was  one  of  the  original  members  of  the  old  Helena 
Improvement  Society  and  one  of  its  officers,  and  as 
long  as  her  health  permitted  was  an  active  participant 
in  the  work  of  the  society. 

In  September,  1910,  Mrs.  Holter  suffered  a  fall  on 
the  stairs  in  her  home,  from  the  effects  of  which  she 
never  fully  recovered.  The  winter  of  1911-12  she  spent 
in  California  with  her  husband,  and  although  she  re- 
turned with  renewed  strength,  she  never  regained  her 
old-time  vigor.  During  the  summer  and  autumn  she 
failed  gradually,  imtil  death  called  her  on  the  after- 
noon of  December  5th. 

Mrs.  Holter  was  the  mother  of  five  children,  who 
with  her  husband  survive  her.  They  are :  Norman  B., 
Albert  L..  Aubrey,  and  Mrs.  H.  P.  Kennett.  of  this 
city,  and  Edwin  O.  Holter,  of  New  York  City. 

George  Booker.  It  is  the  lot  of  some  men  to  be  born 
great,  while  others  have  to  achieve  greatness.  George 
Booker,  of  Helena,  Montana,  was  clearly  destined  to  be 
the  architect  of  his  own  fortune.  Beginning  life  on  a 
low  rung  of  the  ladder  of  success,  he  has,  by  close  ap- 
plication, untiring  energy,  and  a  diligent  use  of  his 
faculties  and  opportunities,  attained  a  good  position  in 
business  circles  and  proved  himself  a  useful  and  worthy 
citizen.  A  native  of  Missouri,  he  was  born  in  St.  Louis 
February  7,  1840.     His  father,  George  Booker,  Sr.,  was 


908 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


born  of  English  parents  in  this  country,  and  spent  the 
greater  part  of  his  early  life  in  St.  Louis,  where  he  was 
engaged  in  business  as  a  baker.  In  1853  he  moved  with 
his  family  to  Burlington,  Iowa,  where  he  opened  a  bak- 
ery for  the  purpose  of  supplying  merchants  and  steam- 
boat companies  with  the  productions  of  his  establish- 
ment. 

After  the  removal  of  his  parents  to  Burlington,  Iowa, 
George  Booker,  a  self-reliant  boy  of  thirteen  years,  left 
home,  returning  to  St.  Louis,  where  he  remamed  until 
twenty  years  old,  during  those  seven  years  losing  all 
trace  of  the  family.  In  i860,  having  previously  sup- 
ported himself  by  various  occupations,  he  started  for 
Leavenworth,  Kansas,  going  by  steamboat  up  the  Mis- 
souri river.  Shortly  after  his  arrival  at  the  point  of 
destination,  Mr.  Booker  became  one  of  a  party  of  seven 
venturesome  youths  who  outfitted  a  wagon  with  two 
voke  of  oxen,  and  traveled  across  the  plains  to  Denver, 
en  route  for  Pike's  Peak  leaving  Leavenworth  in  April 
and  arriving  in  Denver  in  the  latter  part  of  June.  For 
four  years  he  remained  in  Colorado  prospecting  for 
gold.  In  1864  Mr.  Booker  made  his  way  across  the 
country  to  Alder  Gulch,  now  Virginia  City,  Montana, 
where  he  embarked  m  the  livery  and  transfer  business, 
hauling  freight  by  wagons  from  Fort  Benson  to  Alder 
Gulch,  a  distance  of  three  hundred  miles  and  while  in 
that  place  took  up  auctioneering.  Coming  to  Ravilli 
county  in  1866,  Mr.  Booker  took  up  his  residence  in 
Helena,  which  was  then  a  wide-open  frontier  town,  and 
has  since  built  up  an  extensive  and  highly  remunerative 
business  as  an  auctioneer  at  that  point,  being  widely  and 
favorably  known  in  his  professional  capacity  throughout 
the  northwest.  Possessing  good  business  ability  and 
foresight,  he  has  accumulated  a  fair  share  of  this 
world's  goods,  in  addition  to  owning  his  own  home  hav- 
ing valuable  business  property  on  Main  street,  Helena, 
and  mining  interests  in  the  valley. 

A  Democrat  in  politics,  Mr.  Booker  has  never  been  an 
aspirant  for  official  honors,  though  he  works  hard,  but 
quietly  in  the  interests  of  his  party,  and  for  one  year 
served  as  fire  marshal.  Fraternally,  he  belongs  to 
Helena  Lodge,  No.  3,  Ancient  Free  and  Accepted  Order 
of  Masons;  is  a  Knight  Templar;  is  identified  with 
Algeria  Temple,  Mystic  Shrine,  of  which  he  has  been 
recorder  since  its  formation  in  1888;  has  taken  the 
thirty-second  degree  in  Masonry  and  is  preparing  for 
the  thirty-third  degree.  For  the  past  forty  years  he  has 
been  secretary  of  Helena  Lodge,  and  is  probably  more 
familiar  with  lodge  work  than  any  other  of  its  members. 
He  is  a  charter  member  of  the  society  of  Montana 
Pioneers. 

Mr.  Booker  married  Miss  Mattie  Walton,  of  Trinity 
Gulch,  Montana,  and  of  the  six  children  born  of  their 
union,  three  are  living,  namely :  Ethel,  wife  of  John 
D.  Bartlett,  of  Galesburg,  Illinois;  Clinton  T.  of  Helena, 
an  electrician ;  and  Lester  H.,  a  clerk  in  the  First  Na- 
tional Bank  of  Helena. 

John  Harris.  About  fifty  years  ago  John  Harris 
came  to  the_  state  of  Montana,  bringing  with  him  only 
a  good  brain  and  a  pair  of  capable,  willing  hands. 
From  this  foundation  he  erected  a  structure,  as  repre- 
sented by  his  fortune,  that  has  given  him  prestige  in 
the_  world  of  business  and  finance,  and  in  public  and 
social  life.  Montana  has  its  full  quota  of  self-made 
men,  but  probably  none  have  been  the  architects  of 
their  own  fortunes  in  a  greater  degree  than  he.  In  the 
days  of  the  stampedes  to  Bannack  and  Alder  Gulch 
he  was  only  a  poor  boy,  laboring  for  a  pittance,  but 
so  well  did  he  subsequently  manage  his  affairs  that  he 
soon  was  independent,  and  now  takes  a  prominent 
place  among  Fort  Benton's  foremost  citizens.  Mr.  Har- 
ris was  born  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  November  20,  1849. 
son  of  William  and  Marguerite  (Edwards)  Harris. 
His  father,  a  native  of  Virginia,  removed  to  the  state 
of  Missouri  during  frontier  days,  and  in  1849  joined 
the    gold    seekers,    crossing    the    plains    to    California, 


where  he  followed  mining  until  his  death  at  Sacra- 
mento in  1854.  Mrs.  Harris  was  born  in  Wales,  and 
at  a  very  early  age  came  to  the  United  States  with  her 
parents,  settling  in  Missouri.  After  the  death  of  Mr. 
Harris  she  was  married  to  William  H.  Thomas,  and 
her  death  occurred  at  Deer  Lodge,  Montana,  in  1898, 
at  the  age  of  seventy-seven  years.  John  Harris'  only 
brother,  Howell  Harris,  was  born  in  1846,  in  St.  Louis, 
Missouri,  and  now  resides  at  Lethbridge,  Canada. 

John  Harris  was  five  years  of  age  when  he  accom- 
panied his  mother  across  the  plains  to  Cahfornia,  going 
by  mule  team  from  Omaha  to  Salt  Lake,  Utah.  At  the 
latter  point  the  party  remained  until  the  following 
spring,  and  there  Mrs.  Harris  received  word  of  her 
husband's  death.  The  stampede  to  Bannack  in  June, 
1863,  saw  Mr.  Harris  a  member  of  a  prospecting  party, 
and  he  was  located  there  when  the  discovery  of  gold 
was  made  in  Alder  Gulch,  to  which  point  he  imme- 
diately went  with  his  mother  and  brother.  He  fol- 
lowed mining  there  until  1867,  his  stepfather  being  the 
owner  of  a  number  of  claims,  but  subsequently  the 
family  removed  to  the  Deer  Lodge  valley,  twenty  miles 
from  Deer  Lodge,  where  they  took  up  ranch  land.  In 
1873  Mr.  Harris  came  to  Fort  Benton,  and  with  his 
brother  embarked  in  a  freighting  business  for  two 
years  between  this  city  and  Helena,  but  in  1875  retired 
from  freighting  and  purchased  a  herd  of  cattle  in  Deer 
Lodge,  becoming  one  of  the  first  settlers  at  Highwood. 
Mr.  Harris  continued  to  engage  in  cattle  raising  alone 
until  1882,  when  he  with  W.  G.  and  C.  E.  Conrad  and 
I.  G.  Baker,  of  St.  Louis,  organized  the  Benton  &  St. 
Louis  Cattle  Company,  this  becoming  one  of  the  leading 
companies  engaged  in  the  cattle  business  in  Chouteau 
county.  He  continued  to  be  connected  with  this  con- 
cern until  191 1,  in  which  year  he  disposed  of  his  inter- 
ests to  again  enter  business  alone,  and  since  that  time 
has  followed  cattle  raising  on  the  Highwood  range, 
although  he  makes  his  home  in  Fort  Benton.  Mr.  Har- 
ris is  and  has  been  for  several  years  a  member  of  the 
state  board  of  stock  commissioners  and  is  member  of 
the  executive  committee.  He  is  also  a  valued  member 
of  the  Cattle  Men's  Association,  of  the  Odd  Fellows, 
and  of  the  Episcopal  church.  A  stanch  Democrat  in 
his  political  views,  he  served  from  1878  to  1882  as  chair- 
man of  the  board  of  county  commissioners,  was  for  a 
number  of  years  a  member  of  the  school  board,  and 
also  served  for  a  long  period  as  chairman  of  the  Demo- 
cratic county  committee.  He  has  numerous  business 
interests  in  and  about  Fort  Benton,  and  is  a  director 
of  the  Stockmen's  National  Bank  and  the  Benton  Elec- 
tric Light  Company,  and  has  a  wide  acquaintance  in 
business  circles  and  in  public  life.  Everywhere  he  is 
highly  esteemed  as  one  who  has  been  an  important 
factor  in  building  up  and  developing  his  community's 
various  interests. 

Mr.  Harris  was  married  February  28,  1885,  to  Miss 
Addie  Berry,  and  they  have  had  seven  children,  as  fol- 
lows :  Nellie  Margaret,  born  in  1889,  and  now  the  wife 
of  John  Patterson,  a  Chouteau  county  ranchman ;  Mary 
E.,  born  in  1891 ;  Barbara,  born  in  1894,  and  now  at- 
tending college  at  Faribault,  Minnesota;  Howell,  born 
in  1895,  and  Anna,  born  in  1898,  who  are  attending  the 
Fort  Benton  high  school ;  and  Edward  W.,  born  in 
1900,  and  John,  Jr.,  born  in  1904,  who  are  students  in 
the  graded  schools. 

Dr.  Thomas  Jefferson  James  has  been  engaged  in 
the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Kalispell  since  1908. 
He  is  a  native  of  the  state,  born  on  a  farm  near  Bloom- 
field,  Montana,  on  March  12,  1863,  and  up  to  the  time 
of  his  taking  up  professional  work,  was  engaged  in 
ranching  and  in  other  business  of  a  similar  nature,  with 
his  father.  Doctor  James  is  a  distinct  western  product, 
having  from  his  infancy  been  accustomed  to  the  various 
phases  of  western  pioneer  life.  He  is  the  son  of  Esau 
James  and  Melinda  (Congill)  James,  the  former  being 
the  son  of  Morris  and  Mary   (Beasley)   James. 


^^^.^a:mi^Liair^ii:wjL.^^^^ 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


909 


Morris  James  was  born  in  Kentucky.  He  emigrated 
to  Iowa  in  his  early  manhood,  soon  thereafter  gomg  to 
California  during  the  days  of  the  gold  madness  m  that 
state,  and  he  died  there  in  1850,  still  a  young  man.  His 
wife  was  born  in  Tennessee,  near  Chattanooga  and  she 
died  in  Missouri  in  1847.  Their  son,  Esau,  the  father 
of  Doctor  James  of  this  review,  was  born  on  May  24, 
1838.  He  was  but  a  lad  when  his  parents  moved  to  Iowa, 
settling  on  a  farm  m  Davis  county  where  they  remained 
for  some  little  time  before  they  removed  to  Missouri. 
In  that  state  they  settled  on  farming  lands  in  Lancaster, 
but  their  stay  in  Missouri  was  of  the  briefest.  They 
returned  to  Iowa,  making  the  trip  overland  by  wagon 
train  in  the  then  popular  prairie  schooner,  and  from 
Iowa  they  went  on  to  Nebraska,  settling  m  the  eastern 
part  of  the  state,  where  Esau  James  was  employed  by 
land  agents  there,  remaining  through  the  winter.  From 
there  he  moved  to  Kansas,  and  after  a  short  time  re- 
turned to  Iowa  once  more,  continuing  there  until  i860. 

In  i860  Esau  James  went  to  Missouri  and  there  mar- 
ried Melinda  Congill  at  Lancaster,  the  marriage  taking 
place  in  the  month  of  September.  Her  parents  were 
early  Iowa  pioneers  who  moved  into  Missouri  in  middle 
life.'  After  his  marriage  Mr.  James  returned  to  Iowa 
where  he  was  owner  of  a  fine  farm  and  there  he  fol- 
lowed the  farming  business  until  1864.  In  that  year  he 
became  attracted  by  the  western  country  and  decided  to 
move  to  Montana.  He  accordingly  sold  his  farm  and 
ioined  a  small  party  going  overland  to  Montana,  some 
fifteen  hundred  miles  distant  from  his  Iowa  home,  and 
for  the  most  part,  through  a  country  invaded  by  bands 
of  hostile  Indians.  These  early  pioneers  were  never 
lacking  in  pluck  and  determination,  whatever  their  con- 
ditions might  be  from  a  material  aspect,  and  the  pros- 
pect of  a  trip  of  such  magnitude  presented  no  dis- 
couraging features  to  their  hardy  natures.  Their  trip 
was  unattended  by  untoward  experience  until  they 
reached  the  Platte  river  at  Laramie,  where  they  were 
attacked  by  a  small  band  of  Indians.  They  were  suc- 
cessful in  their  efforts  to  resist  the  savages,  and  at 
Laramie  were  detained  by  the  soldiers  stationed  there 
until  a  larger  party  had  been  gathered  to  complete  the 
trip.  After  leaving  Laramie  they  were  unmolested 
until  they  reached  Big  Sandy,  Wyoming,  where  a  large 
body  of  hostile  Sioux  attacked  them.  The  party  formed 
a  breastworks  of  their  wagons  in  a  corral,  and  for  four 
days  withstood  the  constant  annoyances  to  which  the 
incessant  attentions  of  the  Indians  subjected  them.  At 
the  end  of  that  time,  when  they  were  just  about  to  give 
up  in  despair,  the  savages  became  discouraged  at  the 
continued  resistance  of  the  party  and  took  their  de- 
parture. From  that  point  they  continued  on  very  cau- 
tiously until  they  reached  the  Green  Mountains,  when 
they  found  themselves  in  the  forest.  En  route  through 
that  part  of  the  country  they  encountered  fierce  forest 
fires,  and  narrowly  escaped  death  in  the  flames.  When 
they  finally  reached  a  clearing  they  were  much  the 
worse  for  wear,  having  lost  the  canvases  off  their 
wagons,  but  without  other  loss.  Entering  a  valley,  they 
found  their  passage  most  pleasant  until  they  suffered 
the  loss  of  a  part  of  their  stock  as  a  result  of  eating 
poison  weeds  in  the  valley.  In  the  valley,  they  rested 
after  their  severe  and  trying  trip  and  enjoyed  hunting 
and  fishing  in  the  lakes  and  rivers,  which  abounded  in 
the  choicest  of  Montana  trout,  and  other  game  was 
equally  plentiful.  Continuing  on  from  there  to  Snake 
river  crossing,  they  encountered  new  difficulties  at  the 
Piatt  river  crossing  where  they  found  the  river  much 
swollen.  In  order  to  make  the  passage  over  they  had 
to  elevate  their  wagon  boxes  to  a  considerable  height, 
and  it  required  four  days  of  strenuous  labor  to  safely 
convey  the  party  across  the  rushing  torrent.  No  sooner 
were  they  safely  across  the  river  than  the  Indians 
again  made  their  appearance,  this  time  stampeding 
their  cattle.  They  were  not  so  persistent  as  other  bands 
which  they  had  encountered,  and  the  travelers  were  able 
to  repulse   them   with  but   little   effort.     At  this   point, 


however,  Mr.  James  narrowly  escaped  with  his  life 
while  trying  to  rescue  the  cattle  which  the  Indians  had  • 
made  off  with  and  were  guarding  on  a  nearby  island. 
The  waters  of  the  river  were  almost  too  much  for 
him,  sturdy  as  he  was,  and  after  sinking  twice  to  the 
bottom  of  the  river,  he  finally  managed  to  reach  the 
shore.  Here  he  found  his  cattle  in  charge  of  a  small 
Indian  guard,  and  it  was  with  great  difhculty  that  he 
was  able  to  make  terms  with  them,  and  finally  induced 
them  to  release  the  cattle.  By  holding  to  the  tails  of 
the  oxen  as  they  swam  across,  he  made  his  way  safely 
back  to  his  party  with  all  the  missing  cattle.  Once 
more  ready  for  the  road,  they  set  out  and  proceeded 
unmolested  until  they  reached  Big  Blackfoot  in  Utah. 
From  there  they  went  to  Bannack,  Helena  and  latterly 
to  Virginia  City,  where  the  party  disbanded.  Thus 
ended  the  pilgrimage  of  Esau  James  and  his  family 
from  their  quiet,  Iowa  home  into  the  wilderness  of  the 
West,  as  yet  unclaimed  by  any  but  the  hardiest  pioneer 
spirits  of  the  nation. 

In  the  winter  of  1864-5  Mr.  James  mined  at  Alder 
Gulch,  and  in  the  spring  of  1865  went  to  Last  Chance 
in  quest  of  riches  in  that  much  touted  gold  camp.  From 
there  he  went  to  Montana,  and  engaged  in  ranching 
until  1867,  his  location  being  on  the  Missouri  river, 
sorne  eighteen  miles  from  the  city  of  Helena.  In  the 
spring  of  1867  he  again  became  enthusiastic  over  the 
mining  situation  and  went  to  Idaho,  but  his  mining 
operations  were  never  of  a  wide  scope,  or  more  than 
ordinarily  successful.  Very  shortly  he  gave  up  that 
business  there  and  moved  on  to  Boise,  Idaho,  where 
he  opened  a  hotel,  and  was  very  successful  in  that 
business.  In  1868  he  sold  out  and  went  to  Helena, 
sending  his  wife  back  to  Iowa  on  a  visit  to  her  old 
home  and_  family,  and  during  her  absence  Mr.  James 
took  a  string  of  racing  horses  and  trained  them  for  the 
Travis  Brothers.  In  the  following  year  he  followed  a 
similar  business  for  Hugh  Kirkendell,  traveling  through- 
out the  West  with  them  and  racing  in  various  places. 
He  continued  in  that  work  until  1870,  then  going  to 
Cedar  Creek  where  he  again  interested  himself  in  mining 
ventures.  Not  meeting  with  encouraging  success,  he 
started  a  stage  station  at  Eagle  Creek  on  the  Missoula 
river,  and  also  ran  the  hotel  at  that  place,  in  which  he 
continued  until  1873.  From  there  he  went  to  Missoula 
and  started  up  in  the  freighting  business,  later  being 
engaged  similarly  at  Fort  Benton,  Butte,  Deer  Lodge 
and  Helena,  and  continuing  until  1883.  He  then  went 
to  Calfornia  and  spent  a  winter.  Returning,  he  bought 
a  ranch  two  miles  west  of  Missoula,  which  he  con- 
ducted up  until  1900,  at  which  time  his  son  took  charge, 
and  Mr.  James  went  to  Fort  Steel  on  another  mining 
exploit.  Disappointed  in  that  venture,  he  returned  to 
Montana  and  came  to  Kalispell  where  he  secured  a 
steam  wood-saw  and  engaged  in  wood  sawing.  His 
was  the  first  steam  wood-saw  to  be  operated  in  Kalis- 
pell, and  he  did  a  thriving  business  there  with  it  until 
1904,  when  he  sold  out  and  bought  the  steam  ferry 
boat  "Iowa"  in  operation  on  the  lake  at  Poison,  a  busi- 
ness which  he  has  conducted  since  that  time.  In  1908 
Mr.  James  leased  his  boat  and  made  a  trip  through  the 
western  states,  visiting  in  Seattle,  Washington,  thence 
to  Los  Angeles,  California,  and  coming  back  through 
Arizona,  New  Mexico,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Missouri, 
Iowa  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and  from  that  point  back  to 
Montana,  the  trip  covering  a  period  of  four  years  of 
travel. 

During  the  years  of  Mr.  James'  residence  in  this 
section  of  the  country  he  was  deputy  sheriff  of  Mis- 
soula county  for  a  number  of  years,  and  proved  his 
efficiency  in  many  an  encounter  with  offenders  during 
that  time.  He  is  a  Democrat  of  the  Progressive 
type,  and  has  always  been  a  strong  partisan  of  the 
cause  of  the  Democracy.  His  life  has  been  one  of  ad- 
venture, but  in  that  respect  similar  to  the  experience 
of  many  another  spirited  man  who  has  helped  to  make 
of  Montana  the  great  and  glowing  treasure  spot  which 


910 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


she  is  today  in  her  further  development.  Mr.  James 
■  is  a  member  of  the  Benevolent  Protective  Order  of  tlks 
of  Kalispell,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Christian  church 
Although  well  advanced  in  years,  he  is  still  strong  and 
ru-^oed,  and  takes  vast  enjoyment  in  the  pleasures  of 
out^door  life.  He  is  the  owner  of  considerable  property 
in  this  section  of  the  state,  two  valuable  ranches  being 
a  part  of  the  holdings.  In  addition  to  the  Missoula 
ranch  which  his  son  operated  for  him  for  some  time, 
he  has  a  valuable  cattle  ranch  at  Ross  Hole,  which 
he  at  one  time  conducted  himself,  but  though  he  does 
not  longer  operate  them  himself,  he  continues  to  be  the 

owner.  ,  ,        ^ 

Mr  and  Mrs.  James  became  the  parents  of  one  son. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  who  is  the  subject  of  this  review. 
His  early  education  was  received  in  the  common  schools 
of  Montana,  after  which  he  was  sent  to  Davenport, 
Iowa,  where  he  attended  the  high  school.  After  his 
o-raduation  therefrom  he  attended  college  in  Iowa, 
Colorado  and  California.  Doctor  James  is  a  graduate 
of  a  number  of  schools  of  osteopathy,  among  them  being 
(he  Barber  College  of  Osteopathy  of  Missouri,  Palmer 
College  of  Davenport,  Iowa,  from  which  he  was  grad- 
uated in  1900.  In  1903  he  was  graduated  from  the 
Medical  Electric  College  of  Chicago,  and  in  1907  from 
the  Los  Angeles  (Calif.)  College  of  Ophthalmology.  In 
that  same  year  he  took  a  course  of  in.struction  under 
Doctor  Davis  at  Los  Angeles,  in  neuropathy  as  a  further 
aid  to  his  profession.  I-'ollowing  his  graduation  in 
1907  Doctor  James  spent  the  winter  in  southern  Arizona 
and  New  Mexico,  after  which  he  took  a  course  of  study 
in  ophthalmology  in  Denver,  finishing  in  1908.  Im- 
mediately thereafter  Doctor  James  came  to  Kalispell, 
where  he  has  since  conducted  a  very  successful  practice, 
aided  therein  by  his  wife,  who  is  a  graduate  of  the 
"^ame  school  in  California  from  which  he  received  his 
degree.  She  was  Mrs.  Oza  L.  Minnick,  and  they  were 
married  at  Cranbrook,  British  Columbia,  on  June  5, 
1908.  Both  are  popular  in  their  profession  and  have 
won  a  wide  patronage  in  and  about  Kalispell  in  the 
comparatively  brief  time  in  which  they  have  been  here 
established.  Both  are  especially  able  physicians,  and 
have  the  confidence  of  all  who  know  them  professionally 
or  otherwise. 

Before  Doctor  James  became  identified  with  his 
present  profession,  he  was  employed  in  the  operation 
and  management  of  his  father's  ranching  interests  for 
a  number  of  years,  as  suggested  in  another  portion  of 
this  sketch,  and  he  has  had  a  large  and  varied  experi- 
ence in  the  years  devoted  to  these  more  strenuous  pur- 
suits. He  was  for  .some  time  a  well-known  stage  driver 
of  the  overland  stage  between  Helena  and  Jefferson, 
and  many  exciting  experiences  came  his  way  during 
that  time.  Those  were  the  days  when  the  "hold-up" 
man  was  well  known  to  the  traveling  public,  and  he 
was  on  numerous  occasions  held  up  enroute.  Doctor 
James  is  a  noted  hunter  in  Montana,  big  game  being 
his  usual  quest.  On  one  occasion  he  came  near  to  for- 
feiting his  life  as  the  result  of  an  encounter  with  a 
monster  silver  tip  grizzly  bear.  He  fired  five  shots  into 
the  infuriated  animal  before  he  succeeded  in  reaching 
a  vulnerable  spot,  and  the  bear  was  within  a  few  feet 
of  him  when  the  last  shot  brought  him  down.  He 
still  owns  the  skin,  which  he  had  tanned,  and  it  was 
pronounced  at  that  time  the  largest  bear  that  had  ever 
been  killed  in  ihe  state.  This  handsome  skin  is  but  one 
of  a  large  number^  of  trophies  of  the  hunt  which  he 
has  to  show  for  his  life  in  the  West.  Doctor  James 
still  takes  an  active  interest  in  the  ranching  busines,-^ 
which  he  conducted  before  taking  up  osteopathy,  and 
he  is  the  owner  of  other  valuable  Montana  property,  in 
addition  to  a  handsome  home  in  Kalispell.  Doctor 
James  is  most  obviously  one  of  those  more  progressive 
and  enterprising  men  who  have  sufficient  wide-minded- 
ness  to  be  alile  to  grasp  more  than  one  idea  at  a  time, 
and  which  makes  it  possilile  for  him  to  entertain  a 
variety  of  interests.     He  is  one  cf  the  valuable  citizens 


of  Kalispell  who  is  ever  up  and  doing  in  the  cause  of 
improved  conditions,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  predict 
that  his  future  life  will  shed  a  powerful  and  beneficent 
infiuence  upon  the  community  in  which  he  ""lives  and 
moves  and  has  his  being." 

Judge  John  Edward  AIurr.w  was  born  in  Ireland, 
on  May  18,  1827,  and  died  on  the  lOth  day  of  March, 
1903,  at  his  home  in  Lewistown,  where  he  had  lived 
since  May,  1887.  Judge  Murray  came  to  America 
as  a  mere  child  with  his  parents  and  his  first  American 
home  was  in  the  state  of  Maine.  Later  the  family 
moved  to  New  Brunswick,  and  there  some  years  of  the 
subject's  life  were  passed.  He  was  yet  very  young 
when  he  left  home,  and  he  began  his  career  in  life's 
activities  as  an  iron-puddler.  In  1859  he  crossed  the 
plains,  reaching  Denver  via  the  Santa  Fe  trail  in  the 
month  of  April  in  the  same  year.  He  had  many 
experiences  more  or  less  serious  in  their  nature,  and 
at  one  time  he  and  his  partner  lost  their  way  in 
Colorado.  For  several  days  they  subsisted  on  seeds 
and  wild  rose  bushes,  but  finally  succeeded  in  reaching 
food  and  water,  when  hope  was  almost  gone. 

In  the  spring  of  1863  Mr.  Murray  left  Colorado  and 
headed  for  Bannack,  Montana,  which  place  he  reached 
on  the  I2th  of  May.  Soon  thereafter  he  and  a  few 
other  hardy  spirits  started  out  on  a  prospecting  trip, 
and  it  was  they  who  discovered  gold  in  Horse  Prairie. 
They  organized  into  a  company  and  on  July  4th  Mr. 
Murray  was  elected  president  of  the  mining  district. 
It  was  aliout  that  time  that  W.  A.  Clark,  since  one  of 
the  famous  mining  men  of  the  west,  came  into  the 
region,  and  he  secured  claims  in  the  gulch  known  as 
the  Jeff  Davis  Gulch,  a  tributary  of  the  one  in  which 
they  were  operating,  known  as  Colorado  Gulch. 

In  the  spring  of  1864  Mr.  Clark  bought  out  some  of 
Mr.  Murray's  partners,  and  Mr.  Murray  avers  that  they 
who  claim  that  W.  A.  Clark  never  did  a  day's  work 
in  the  mines  don't  know  what  they  are  talking  of,  for 
they  did  many  a  day's  work  together  on  that  claim 
and  Mr.  Murray  claims  that  Clark  was  a  good  work- 
man, too.  In  September,  1865,  Mr.  Murray  sold  his 
interest  in  the  property  to  ]\Ir.  Clark  and  went  to  Snake 
River  to  prospect.  His  old  acquaintance,  Skelly,  was 
again  with  him,  but  they  found  nothing  in  that  region 
of  any  value,  so  they  crossed  over  to  the  west  fork  of 
tiie  Madison  and  followed  it  down  to  Virginia  City, 
starting  from  there  to  Helena.  At  Helena  Mr.  Murray 
got  a  claim  in  the  St.  Louis  Gulch,  which  he  soon 
sold  out  and  went  to  Oregon  Gulch,  where  he  mined 
in  several  locations.  Between  the  years  of  1868  and 
1873  he  was  identified  with  various  mining  locations  in 
the  vicinity  and  in  1873  he  was  elected  to  the  office  of 
probate  judge  of  Meagher  county.  He  served  four 
years  in  that  office,  but  refused  a  re-nomination  and 
again  turned  his  attention  to  mining.  In  1879  he  took 
up  a  homestead  on  the  Musselshell  river,  and  in_  1882 
he  was  again  elected  probate  judge,  against  his  wishes. 
It  was  in  1887  that  he  first  bought  property  in  Lewis- 
town  and  there  went  into  the  cigar  and  confectionery 
business,  in  which  he  continued  to  ])e  profitably  engaged 
until  death  called  him.  In  1894  Judge  Murray  was  ap- 
pointed postmaster  of  Lewistown  and  served  four  years 
in  that  office  under  President  Cleveland.  He  also 
served  as  city  treasurer  of  Lewistown  and  was  an  active 
worker  in  the  ranks  of  the  Democratic  party.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Pioneer  Society  of  Montana  and  his 
churchly  affiliations  were  with  the  Roman  Catholic 
church,  in  which  he  was  reared  by  his  parents. 

On  September  2,  1888.  Judge  Murray  was  united  in 
marriage  with  Miss  Belle  Abraham,  and  they  became 
the  parents  of  two  children,  but  one  of  whom,  John  Ed- 
ward Murray,  is  living. 

Hon.  W.  J.  McCoRMicK.  Few  of  the  honored  pio- 
neers of  Montana  did  more  in  the  way  of  developing  the 
resources  of  this  great  state  in  his  time  than  did  the 


"'i-  l,^,.^s  .^-%/J//- 


/    C,    f'PL^t-^l^.^T^-^x^...^^ 


/ 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


911 


Hon.  W.  J.  McCormick,  now  deceased,  but  a  resident 
of  the  state  from  1863  until  the  time  of  his  death  in 
1889,  and  one  of  the  founders  and  most  enterprising 
and  liberal  citizens  of  Missoula. 

Born  near  ]\Iuncie,  Delaware  county,  Indiana,  in  the 
year  1835,  he  was  the  son  of  Rev.  William  McCormick, 
of  Harrisburg,  Virginia,  and  the  descendant  of  a  long 
line  of  Irish  ancestors.  His  grandfather,  John  McCor- 
mick, emigrated  from  Dublin,  Ireland,  where  the  family 
was  long  and  prominently  known,  and  yet  is,  and  from 
that  worthy  gentleman  are  descended  a  large  family, 
many  of  whom  have  filled  the  higher  places  in  life 
and  realized  many  noble  ambitions.  The  late  Hon. 
James  G.  Blaine  and  the  late  Hon.  Cyrus  H.  McCormick, 
were  of  this  family.  The '  father  of  Mr.  AlcCormick 
of  this  review  was  a  Baptist  minister  of  many  talents, 
and  after  his  marriage  in  Harrisonburg,  Virginia,  in 
which  town  he  was  born  and  reared,  he  moved  to  In- 
diana, where  for  many  years  he  was  devoted  to  minis- 
terial duties,  combining  these  duties  with  the  functions 
of  a  circuit  judge,  and  there  he  reared  his  family  of 
seven  children,  of  which  number,  Washington  J.,  the 
subject,   was  the  youngest. 

Washington  J.  McCormick  finished  his  education  in 
Asbury  College,  now  De  Pauw  University  at  Green- 
castle,  Indiana.  In  1856  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
being  then  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  in  the  following 
year  he  went  to  Utah,  where  he  held  many  important  and 
prominent  positions  in  line  with  his  profession  in  a 
political  way — among  them  being  the  office  of  secretary 
of  state,  attorney  general  and  chief  justice  of  court. 
The  year  1863  first  saw  his  advent  into  Montana,  and 
Virginia  City  was  his  first  place  of  residence.  For 
two  years  he  practiced  law  in  that  city,  and  while  there 
took  an  active  and  efficient  part  in  the  politics  of  the 
country.  He  was  secretary  of  the  first  Democratic 
convention  held  in  the  territory,  and  in  1864  was  a 
member  of  the  territorial  legislature  from  Madison 
county.  In  April.  1865,  he  removed  to  Deer  Lodge 
and  was  elected  to  the  legislature  from  that  county. 
He  was  superintendent  of  the  Flathead  Indian  Agency, 
for  two  years,  from  1866  to  1868,  inclusive.  He  came 
to  Missoula  in  1868.  before  an  organized  town  existed, 
and  here  with  Captain  Higgins  and  Hon.  F.  L.  Worden, 
he  was  occupied  in  the  development  and  building  of 
the  town.  He  was  interested  in  milling  and  stock- 
raising  in  both  Chouteau  and  Missoula  counties,  and 
acquired  much  valuable  ranch  property  in  the  Bitter 
Root  valley,  while  he  owned  a  considerable  property 
in  Missoula.  It  is  noteworthy  that  Mr.  McCormick 
was  the  first  editor  and  the  founder  of  the  Gazette, 
and  in  his  capacity  as  editor,  he  brought  to  bear  an 
influence  for  good  that  went  far  in  the  upbuilding  of 
the  city  along  the  most  desirable  lines.  His  talents 
were  many,  and  as  a  lawyer,  a  politician  of  unusual 
ai)ility  and  power,  an  editor  whose  opinions  carried 
weight  and  brought  results  in  the  right  direction,  and 
a  business  man  of  exceptional  acumen  and  good  judg- 
ment, he  occupied  an  imposing  position  in  Missoula 
for  upwards  of  a  quarter  of  a  century.  He  attended 
the  legislature  from  Missoula  countv  in  187;,  1877, 
1878.   1884. 

Mr.  McCormick  was  a  man  who  gave  liberally  of 
his  substance  to  every  worthy  cause,  and  prominent 
among  his  numerous  benefactions  is  his  gift  of  the 
tiiree  blocks  on  which  now  stands  the  Catholic  church 
edifice,  the  school  and  hospital.  Although  Mr.  Mc- 
Cormick was  not  of  the  Catholic  faith,  he  gave  liber- 
ally towards  the  establishment  of  Catholic  schools 
and  hospitals  in  his  county.  Mr.  McCormick  also 
was  a  liberal  giver  in  the  cause  which  resulted  in  se- 
curing the  building  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
to  Missoula,  and  it  is  a  deplorable  fact  that  the  city 
of  which  he  was  one  of  the  founders,  saw  her  greatest 
era  of  development  and  growth  just  after  the  untimely 
death  of  the  man  who  had  labored  so  indefatigably  in 
making    that    growth    possible.      Mr.    McCormick    met 


his  death  on  February  3,  1889,  as  the  result  of  an  acci- 
dent caused  by  a  windstorm  at  Fort  Owen,  the  oldest 
fortification  in  Montana,  which  property  he  had  pur- 
chased from  Major  John  Owen  in   1870. 

One  year  after  Mr.  McCormick  came  to  Missoula,  in 
1869,  he  was  united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Kate  Hig- 
gins, the  daughter  of  Christopher  Power  and  Edith 
(O'Byrne)  Higgins,  and  sister  of  the  late  Cantain  C.  P. 
Higgins,  of  Missoula,  with  whom  Mr.  McCormick  was 
associated  in  a  business  way  in  the  developing  and 
planning  of  a  greater  Missoula  than  then  existed.  Her 
people  were  descendants  of  the  early  kings  of  Ireland, 
and  they  came  to  America  in  1851,  locating  in  Montana 
in    1865. 

Seven  children  were  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  McCor- 
mick, all  native  sons  and  daughters  of  Missoula,  and 
they  are  named  as  follows :  Mary  Edith  O'Byrne ;  Wil- 
liam Worden ;  John  Francis  Higgins ;  Blanche  Ada 
Louise ;  Veronica  Honora  Hester ;  Paul  Christopher 
and  Washington  J.,  Jr..  concerning  whom  extended 
mention  is  made  elsewhere  in  this  work  in  a  separate 
article  devoted  to  him.  The  daughter,  Blanche  Ada 
Louise,  died  on  January  15,  1892,  in  the  seventeenth 
year  of  her  life. 

Washington  J.  McCormick.  Following  the  pro- 
fession in  which  his  distinguished  father,  the  late  Hon. 
Washington  J.  McCormick,  won  a  high  place  and  espe- 
cial distinction,  Washington  J.  McCormick  is  just  be- 
ginning a  career  of  exceptional  promise.  The  father  was 
one  of  the  oldest  settlers  of  Missoula,  and  a  man  to 
whom  the  city  owes  much  of  her  present  prosperity  and 
prominence,  and  in  his  work  the  son  has  the  advantage 
of  every  favorable  circumstance  in  the  making  of  a  name 
for  himself  and  achieving  a  worthy  success  in  the  pro- 
fession he  has  chosen.  It  is  a  pleasing  fact  to  record 
that  the  young  man  is  not  content  with  the  laurels 
won  by  his  worthy  parent,  but  is  bent  upon  a  career  of 
accomplishment  which,  in  view  of  his  many  talents 
and  splendid  energies,  it  is  safe  to  predict  that  he  will 
realize. 

Born  in  ^Missoula,  Montana,  on  January  4,  1884,  Mr. 
McCormick  is  the  son  of  Washington  J.  and  Catherine 
O'Byrne  Higgins,  concerning  the  former  of  whom  ex- 
tended mention  is  made  in  a  memoir  dedicated  to  him 
in  other  pages  of  this  work,  the  mother  being  the  de- 
scendant of  a  noble  family  of  Ireland,  which  claimed  as 
its  ancestors  some  of  the  early  kings  of  that  valiant 
little  island.  Mr.  McCormick  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  his  native  city  and  in  the  University  of  Mon- 
tana, and  later  he  attended  Notre  Dame  University  in 
Indiana  and  Harvard  University,  from  which  latter  in- 
stitution he  was  graduated  in  1907.  He  engaged  in 
the  study  of  law  at  Columbia,  and  was  graduated  in 
1910,  a  full  fledged  lawyer.  Admitted  to  the  New 
York  bar  in  June,  1910,  at  once  Mr.  McCormick  began 
the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Missoula,  and  from 
tlie  start  took  a  prominent  place  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Republican  party,  and  in  the  autumn  of  191 1  he  took 
the  stump  for  the  party  in  his  district  and  in  other 
parts    of    the    state. 

Two  years  of  continued  practice  in  the  profession  of 
law  in  Alissoula  have  not  been  sufficient  to  bring  fame 
as  a  legist  to  this  young  man,  but  they  have  been  ample 
to  prove  the  mettle  of  the  man.  and  more  than  sufficient 
to  establish  him  permanently  in  the  ranks  of  the  rising 
young  men  of  the  city  and  county.  As  a  side  issue 
Mr.  McCormick  has  recently  had  some  success  in  the 
field  of  journalism  and  belles  lettres.  A  brilliant  future 
is  everywhere  predicted  for  him.  and  Missoula  is  fortu- 
nate indeed  in  that  the  son  of  one  of  her  most  dis- 
tinguished citizens  has  elected  to  cast  in  his  lot  with 
the  future  of  the  city  of  his  birth,  which  his  father  did 
so  much  to  promote  and  popularize,  and  which  has 
accorded  to  that  worthy  citizen  a  fair  measure  of  appre- 
ciation and  praise. 


912 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


Thomas  H.  Carter.  A  life  conspicuous  for  the 
magnitude  and  variety  of  its  achievement  was  that  of 
the  late  Senator  Thomas  H.  Carter,  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  and  honored  figures  in  the  history  of  the 
state  of  Montana,  and  one  whose  influence  transcended 
local  environs  to  permeate  the  national  life.  So  great 
accomplishment  as  was  his  can  not  but  imply  exalted 
subjective  character,  and  thus,  above  all  and  beyond 
all,  Senator  Carter  merits  perpetual  honor  by  virtue  of 
the  very  strength  and  nobility  of  his  character.  To  the 
fullest  compass  of  his  splendid  powers  he  rendered 
service  to  the  state  and  nation ;  his  labors  were  un- 
sparing, and  his  honesty  of  purpose  was  beyond  cavil. 
The  refle.x  of  the  high  honors  conferred  upon  him  was 
the  honors  he  himself  conferred.  It  can  not  be  doubted 
that  to  him  more  than  to  any  other  one  has  been  due 
the  securing  of  that  governmental  co-operation  which 
has  made  passible  the  magnificent  development  of  the 
great  western  empire  of  our  national  domain,  and  he 
was  in  the  truest  sense  one  of  the  great  men  of  Amer- 
ica. It  is  not  easy  to  describe  adequately  a  man  who 
was  distinct  in  character  and  who  accomplished  so 
much  in  the  world  as  did  Senator  Carter,  and  the  lim- 
itations imposed  by  the  province  of  this  publication  are 
such  has  to  make  possible  only  a  brief  review  of  the 
career  of  the  man,  without  extended  genealogical  rec- 
ord or  critical  analysis  of  character. 

In  a  preliminary  way  it  may  be  stated  that  he  to 
w-hom  this  memoir  is  dedicated  was  the  last  delegate 
from  the  territory  of  Montana  in  the  United  States 
congress,  the  first  representative  in  congress  after  the 
state  has  been  admitted  to  the  Union,  and  the  first 
person  from  the  slate  to  be  elected  to  serve  a  full  term 
in  the  United  States  senate.  A  man  of  action,  a  force- 
ful and  effective  director  of  public  opinion,  a  statesman 
of  proved  ability,  a  lawyer  of  high  attainments  and  a 
citizen  of  high  ideals,  Senator  Carter  well  merited- the 
title  applied  to  him  through  high  and  authoritative 
sources, — that  of  "Mor  tana's  most  distinguished  son." 
From  the  address  delivered  by  Hon.  Lee  Mantle  on 
the  occasion  of  the  assembly  held  in  memory  of  Sen- 
ator Carter,  at  the  Auditorium  in  the  city  of  Helena, 
on  Sunday,  October  15,  1911,  are  taken  the  following 
extracts : 

"In  endeavoring  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of 
Senator  Carter,  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  that  which 
truth  requires  and  justice  demands,  for  in  view  of  the 
magnitude  of  his  labors  and  the  value  of  his  public 
services  to  both  the  state  and  nation,  there  is  scant 
opportunity  for  exaggerated  eulogy.  There  is,  indeed, 
much  more  liklihood  of  failing  to  do  full  justice  to  a 
character  so  strong  and  well  poised,  to  a  record  so 
replete  with  achievements,  and  to  a  life  filled  with  use- 
fulness and  high  promise. 

"On  the  17th  day  of  September,  191 1,  the  citizens 
of  Montana,  without  division  of  sentiment,  were  shocked 
and  grieved  beyond  expression  by  the  startling  and  de- 
pressing intelligence,  which  came  like  a  thunderbolt 
from  a  clear  sky,  that  ex-United  States  Senator  Thomas 
H.  Carter  had  suddenly  expired.  So  wholly  unlooked 
for  and  unexpected  was  this  event,  and  so  large  a  place 
had  he  filled  in  the  public  mind,  that  the  sad  news  of 
his  death  was  in  the  nature  of  a  public  calamity,  and 
for  days  no  other  thought  was  in  the  minds  of  the 
people,  no  other  expression  upon  their  lips  than  a  sense 
of  profound  regret  and  irreparable  loss.  It  seemed 
incredible  that  one  so  familiarly  known  to  us  all;  one 
who  had  so  recently  left  us,  apparently  in  the  full  vigor 
of  body  and  mind  and  in  the  plentitude  of  his  splendid 
intellectual  powers,  should  so  quickly  and  without  ap- 
parent warning  fall  a  prey  to  the  'Grim  Destroyer.'  Few 
at  first  could  realize  the  full  import  of  the  blow  which 
had  so  suddenly  robbed  us  of  a  beloved  friend  and 
neighbor  and  fellow  citizen,  and  plunged  an  entire  com- 
monwealth into  mourning. 


"This  was  the  feeling  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  state,  for  there  is  scarcely  a  nook  or  cor- 
ner within  its  wide  boundaries ;  hardly  a  spot  amid 
its  towering  mountains  or  up  and  down  its  broad  valleys 
where  his  eloquent  voice  has  not  been  heard,  where  the 
grasp  of  his  hand  has  not  been  felt  in  friendly  greeting, 
or  where  his  name  was  not  a  familiar  household  word. 
And  what  was  true  here  at  home,  among  his  own  people, 
in  his  own  state,  was  largely  true  also  in  the  capital  of 
the  nation,  where  his  long  and  conspicuous  service  in 
the  house  and  senate  and  in  other  high  official  posi- 
tions, together  with  his  striking  personality,  had  made 
him  an  equally  familiar  figure  and  had  won  for  him 
a   profound   respect  and  admiration." 

Thomas  H.  Carter  was  born  in  Scioto  county, 
Ohio,  on  the  30th  of  October,  1854,  and  thus  he  was 
nearly  fifty-seven  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
which  occurred,  without  premonition,  in  the  city  of 
Washington,  on  the  17th  of  September,  191 1.  The 
future  statesman  gained  his  rudimentary  education  in 
his  native  county  and  was  about  eleven  years  of  age 
at  the  time  of  the  family  removal  to  Illinois,  where  he 
continued  his  studies  in  the  public  schools.  He  was 
reared  to  the  sturdy  discipline  of  the  farm  and  early 
gained  close  fellowship  with  honest  toil  and  endeavor. 
After  attaining  to  adult  age  he  continued  to  be  identi- 
fied with  the  great  basic  industry  of  agriculture  for 
some  time,  later  was  engaged  in  railroad  work,  and 
still  later  showed  that  he  was  eligible  for  pedagogic 
honors,  as  he  became  a  successful  and  popular  teacher 
in  the  public  schools  of  Illinois.  The  writer  of  the 
present  article  had  previously  given  the  following  state- 
ments concerning  this  stage  in  the  career  of  Senator 
Carter :  "A  young  man  of  such  marked  ambition  and 
distinct  individuality  could  not  prove  dilatory  in  formu- 
lating definite  plans  for  his  future  life  work,  and  thus 
it  was  that  INIr.  Carter  determined  to  prepare  himself 
for  that  profession  which,  more  than  any  other,  has 
touched  the  public  life  and  welfare  of  the  nation.  At 
Burlington,  Iowa,  he  began  the  study  of  law,  and  he 
so  persistently  applied  himself  that,  with  his  remark- 
able powers  of  absorption  and  assimilation,  he  soon  be- 
came eligible  for  admission  to  the  bar.  He  began  the 
practice  of  his  profession  in  Burlington,  and  his  dis- 
tinctive abilities   soon  gained  him   recognition." 

In  1882  Senator  Carter,  he  was  then  a  young  man  of 
about  twenty-eight  years,  took  action  that  was  destined 
to  have  momentous  influence  upon  his  future  career, 
for  it  was  in  that  year  that  he  identified  himself  with  the 
interests  of  the  territory  of  Montana.  He  established 
his  residence  in  Helena,  and  the  capital  city  of  the  state 
represented  his  home  thereafter  until  he  was  summoned 
from  the  scene  of  life's  mortal  endeavors.  Here  he 
forthwith  entered  vigorously  upon  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  and  he  soon  secured  a  representative  clien- 
tage, in  connection  with  which  lie  made  for  himself 
a  place  among  the  leaders  of  the  bar  which  has  ever 
lent  dignity  and  honor  to  Montana.  Eventually  he  as- 
sociated himself  in  practice  with  John  B.  Clyberg,  and 
for  many  years  the  firm  of  Carter  &  Clyberg  was  known 
as  one  of  the  foremost  in  the  state,  with  a  legal  busi- 
ness of  broad  scope  and  importance.  When  Mr.  Carter 
was  elected  to  congress  Judge  W.  McConnell  became 
a  member  of  the  firm,  and  from  this  time  onward  until 
the  close  of  his  life  public  affairs  engrossed  the  major 
part  of  the  time  and  attention  of  Senator  Carter.  With 
the  distinct  impression  that  in  the  condensed  form  de- 
manded for  this  article  no  better  epitome  of  the  political 
career  of  Senator  Carter  can  be  given  than  that  offered 
in  the  text  of  the  memorial  address  delivered  by  Hon. 
Lee  Mantle,  from  which  quotation  has  already  been 
made,  it  is  deemed  expedient  to  reproduce  a  number  of 
paragraphs  from  the  same,  with  but  slight  paraphrase 
and  elimination.  This  estimate  comes  from  a  lifelong 
friend  of  the  deceased  and  one  who  is  himself  one  of 
Montana's  distinguished  citizens,  so  that  the  significance 


THOMAS  H.  CARTER. 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


913 


of  the  statements  given  is  the  more  emphatic  and  author- 
itative : 

"I  think  it  may  be  truthfully  said  that  Senator  Carter's 
great  natural  gifts,  joined  with  his  many  attainments, 
were  such  a  high  order  that  he  would  have  made  his 
mark  and  acquired  distinction  in  any  walk  of  life  he 
might  have  chosen,  but  it  is  in  the  domain  of  politics 
and  of  statesmanship  that  we  must  look  for  the  splendid 
record  of  his  great  career.  He  was  an  ardent  believer 
in  the  faith  and  tenets  of  the  Republican  party,  proud 
of  its  history  and  a  devout  worshiper  at  the  shrine  of  its 
patron  saint,  Abraham  Lincoln,  for  whom  his  reverance 
and  admiration  knew  no  bounds.  He  was  a  strong, 
vigorous  partisan,  advocating  and  defending  his  political 
beliefs  with  a  force  and  eloquence  rarely  surpassed ;  ad- 
dressing his  arguments  to  the  enlightened  self-interest 
and  reason  of  the  people  rather  than  to  their  passions 
and  prejudices.  Senator  Carter's  partisanship  was  of 
a  high  order;  it  was  patriotic  because  it  was  based  on 
an  earnest  desire  to  secure  the  supremacy  of  those 
policies  which  he  firmly  believed  would  most  redound 
to  the  honor  and  glory  of  his  country  and  to  the  hap- 
piness and  prosperity  of  all  its  people.  He  was  a 
political  leader  of  sound  judgment  and  rare  skill, — reso- 
lute and  resourceful  in  emergencies  and  possessing  in  an 
eminent  degree  the  indispensible  faculty  of  inspiring 
confidence  and  arousing  enthusiasm  among  his  followers. 
It  is  true  that  he  made  many  determined  and  relentless 
political  enemies,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  no  man  ever 
had  more  intensely  loyal  and  devoted  friends. 

"One  of  the  most  admirable  traits  of  Senator  Carter's 
character  was  his  broad-mindedness.  It  was  an  excep- 
tional case,  indeed,  if  he  carried  political  difference  into 
his  personal  relations.  No  matter  how  bitterly  partisan 
warfare  might  be  raging,  he  could  always  meet  his 
antagonists  in  a  friendly  social  and  personal  intercourse. 
In  fact  it  was  well  nigh  impossible  for  coolness  to 
exist  when  subjected  to  the  genial  warmth  of  his  per- 
sonal presence. 

"Senator  Carter  was  a  politician  in  the  highest  and 
best  sense  of  the  term.  He  sought  and  enjoyed  political 
power  and  office  because  they  gave  him  a  broad  oppor- 
tunity for  the  gratification  of  his  personal  tastes  and 
bent  of  mind,  and  for  the  exercise  of  his  exceptional 
qualifications  for  public  life.  He  was  politically  ambi- 
tious, but  his  ambition  was  tempered  with  a  deep  love 
of  country,  a  glowing  pride  in  its  traditions  and  an  ear- 
nest desire  for  the  welfare  of  its  people.  And  it  can 
truthfully  be  said  that  no  public  servant  ever  labored 
more  zealously  in  the  interests  of  his  constituents  than 
he.  His  public  labors  ran  over  a  period  of  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century  and  covered  such  a  wide  area 
of  activity  that  it  would  take  volumes  to  enumerate  them 
in  detail.  Into  them  he  poured  freely  of  his  time, 
strength  and  vitality  and  of  the  reserves  of  his  great 
brain." 

In  1888  Senator  Carter  was  nominated  by  his  party 
for  delegate  in  congress,  this  being  the  year  prior  to  the 
admission  of  the  territory  of  Montana  to  statehood. 
The  campaign  was  one  of  the  most  notable  in  Montana's 
political  annals.  Theretofore  the  territory  had  elected 
only  one  Republican  delegate  to  congress,  and  the  victory 
achieved  by  Senator  Carter  was  consequently  all  the 
more  significant.  His  opponent  was  Hon.  William  A. 
Clark,  of  Butte,  whom  he  defeated  by  a  majority  of 
5,126  votes,  after  a  most  vigorous  and  exciting  cam- 
paign. Montana  was  admitted  to  statehood  the  following 
year  and  this  extinguished  the  office  of  territorial  dele- 
gate ;  but  in  the  first  Republican  state  convention  Mr. 
Carter  was  unanimously  made  the  standard-bearer  of 
his  party,  on  this  occasion  as  candidate  for  full  congres- 
sional honors.  At  the  ensuing  election  he  defeated  Hon. 
Martin  Maginnis,  the  Democratic  candidate,  by  a  ma- 
jority of  1,648,  and  thus  to  him  was  given  the  distinction 
of  having  been  the  last  territorial  delegate  and  the  first 
to  represent  the  new  state  in  the  national  house  of 
representatives.     From  this  juncture  recourse  is  again 


taken  to  the  address  of  Hon.  Lee  Mantle,  who  spoke  as 
follows  concerning  Senator  Carter's  initial  appearance 
in  congress :  "His  quick  grasp  of  parliamentary  pro- 
cedure, his  vast  store  of  knowledge  upon  public  ques- 
tions, combined  with  his  readiness  in  debate  and  his 
great  personal  popularity,  enabled  him  at  once  to  stamp 
the  impress  of  his  strong  individuality  upon  his  associ- 
ates and  gained  for  him  a  standing  and  influence  rarely 
attained  except  after  years  of  service.  From  that  time 
until  death  claimed  him  he  grew  in  usefulness  and  ex- 
panded in  knowledge  and  power  until  his  reputation  had 
spread  beyond  the  narrow  boundaries  of  his  own  state 
and  he  had  become  a  recognized  figure  of  national  im- 
portance,— the  welcome  associate  of  the  greatest  intel- 
lects in  the  nation,  the  peer  of  the  ablest  statesmen 
in  the  land,  the  trusted  friend  and  counselor  of  presi- 
dents. 

"In  1890  he  was  appointed  secretary  of  the  Republi- 
can congressional  campaign  committee.  In  1891  Presi- 
dent Harrison,  recognizing  his  special  fitness  for  the 
place,  appointed  him  commissioner  of  the  general  land 
office.  His  appointment  to  this  important  position  was 
hailed  with  delight  by  the  people  of  the  west,  who  had 
suffered  much  from  the  unjust  restrictions  and  vexa- 
tious rules — due  to  ignorance  of  western  conditions — 
which  then  prevailed  in  that  department  of  the  govern- 
ment. Under  his  intelligent  and  vigorous  administra- 
tion the  policies  of  the  department  were  itnmediately 
liberalized,  its  burdensome  rules  suspended,  its  business 
facilitated  and  placed  upon  a  reasonable  basis. 

"In  1892,  less  than  four  years  from  his  first  appear- 
ance on  the  stage  of  local  politics,  Senator  Carter  was 
selected  chairman  of  the  Republican  national  committee, 
the  highest  position  attainable  in  the  management  of  na- 
tional party  politics.  This  was  a  most  remarkable  tribute 
to  his  abilities  as  an  organizer  and  a  mark  of  the  confi- 
dence reposed  in  him  by  the  great  party  leaders.  It  is 
to  be  doubted  if  in  the  annals  of  our  political  history 
there  is  another  instance  of  such  a  rapid  rise  from  com- 
parative obscurity  to  political  and  national  prominence. 
The  Senator  retained  this  office  four  years  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Hon.  Marcus  A.  Hanna,  of  Ohio." 

At  the  close  of  the  campaign  of  1892  Senator  Carter 
resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Helena,  but 
the  people  of  the  state  had  too  profound  an  appreciation 
of  his  ability  and  loyalty  to  permit  him  to  remain  long 
in  private  life.  In  1895  he  was  nominated  as  candidate 
for  the  senate  of  the  United  States.  Concerning  this 
period  in  the  career  of  Senator  Carter  the  writer  of  the 
present  article  had  previously  written  the  following  es- 
timate :  "The  ensuing  campaign  was  most  spirited  and 
political  enthusiasm  ran  high  in  Montana,  but  the  re- 
.sult  was  favorable  to  Mr.  Carter,  the  honor  accorded 
him  being  a  fitting  crown  to  his  brilliant  career  as 
representative  of  the  interests  of  his  state.  In  the  senate 
he  assumed  a  position  of  no  less  relative  importance 
than  he  had  held  in  the  house.  He  was  an  active  work- 
ing member,  as  a  matter  of  course,  for  he  was  essentially 
a  man  of  action.  During  his  first  senatorial  term  he 
served  on  a  number  of  the  most  important  comittees, 
among  which  mav  be  noted  the  committees  on  census, 
appropriations,  military  affairs,  postoffices  and  post  roads, 
public  lands,  territories,  forest  reservations,  and  pro- 
tection of  game,  besides  others  of  scarcely  less  import- 
ance. His  brilliant  and  long  sustained  efforts  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  passage  of  the  river  and  harbor  bill  at  the 
close  of  the  Fifty-sixth  congress  will  ever  be  remembered 
in  the  annals  of  our  political  history.  It  is  an  undoubted 
fact  that  the  defeat  of  this  extravagant  measure  was  due 
to  him.  It  is  unnecessary  to  recapitulate  the  cogent  and 
forceful  arguments  he  brought  to  bear  in  his  famous 
ten-hour  speech,  which  continued  in  the  last  session  of 
that  congress,  which  expired  before  the  address  was 
completed,  for  the  same  are  a  matter  of  record  and 
have  been  duly  exploited  in  the  public  press  of  the  nation, 
his  course  having  gained  to  him  the  hearty  commenda- 
tion of  a  great  majority  of  the  people  of  the  country, 


914 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


irrespective  of  political  affiliations,  and  stamping  him  as 
one  of  the  zealous  advocates  of  fairness  and  true  econ- 
omy in  the  administration  of  public  affairs.  The  con- 
test on  this  bill  was  a  notable  one,  and  Senator  Carter 
scored,  without  fear  or  favor,  a  measure  that  was  fos- 
tered by  corporate  greed  and  marked  discrimination 
against  the  West  in  an  unwise  expenditure  of  public 
funds  for  the  benefit  of  the  East." 

The  great  West,  and  Montana  especially,  owes  a  per- 
petual debt  of  gratitude  and  honor  to  Senator  Carter 
for  the  results  of  his  action  in  connection  with  the  defeat 
of  the  bill  to  which  reference  has  just  been  made  and 
which  carried  with  it  vast  appropriations  for  river  and 
harbor  improvements  of  questionable  value  and  in  dis- 
tinct discrimination  against  the  demands  of  the  West 
for  federal  aid.  The  Senator's  antagonism  to  the  bill 
was  not  primarily  because  he  opposed  the  demands  of  the 
eastern  section  of  the  country  but  because  of  the  fact 
that  the  East  was  opposed  to  the  legitimate  demands  of 
the  West.  The  defeat  of  this  bill,  appropriating  millions 
for  river  and  harbor  work,  made  the  East  take  cogni- 
zance of  the  fact  that  the  West  also  had  claims  upon  the 
national  government  for  federal  aid  in  the  reclamation 
of  its  vast  tracts  of  arid  lands.  By  the  action  of  Senator 
Carter  the  ultimate  success  of  the  reclamation  move- 
ment was  assured.  Further  reference  to  this  matter  is 
thus  made  in  the  article  from  which  previous  quotations 
have  been  taken  : 

"Appropriations  followed,  and  soon  thereafter  the 
initial  steps  were  taken  in  the  construction  of  those 
stupendous  irri.gation  projects  which  are  today  the  won- 
der and  admiration  of  the  scientific  world.  To  Senator 
Carter,  ne.xt  to  Theodore  Roosevelt,  must  be  given  the 
place  of  honor  in  securing  this  great  constructive  legis- 
lation which  is  bringing  such  vast  benefits  to  Montana 
and  to  the  West  in  general.  He  was  one  of  the  pioneers, 
the  very  ablest  champion  and  advocate  of  the  movement 
that  led  to  these  mighty  undertakings,  which  have  since 
transformed  into  smiling  fields  and  fruitful  orchards 
millions  of  acres  of  barren  soil,  and.  in  very  fact,  made 
the  desert  to  blossom  as  the  rose." 

It  may  be  further  stated  that  it  was  due  to  the  effort.^ 
of  Senator  Carter  that  Montana  obtained  a  greater 
amount  of  federal  aid  in  reclamation  work  than  did  all 
of  the  other  western  states  combined,  and  it  was  through 
his  interposition  only  a  few  months  prior  to  his  death 
a  special  appropriation  of  several  million  dollars  was 
made  by  congress  in  191 1  for  the  completion  of  the 
Milk  river  irrigation  project,  one  of  the  most  important 
in  Montana.  The  Glacier  National  Park,  in  Montana, 
destined  to  rival  the  Yellowstone  Park  as  one  of  the 
wonderful  natural  resorts  of  the  country,  was  created 
through  the  earnest  labors  of  Senator  Carter,  and  in 
recognition  of  his  efforts  the  highest  peak  in  this  great 
reserve  is  known  as  Mount  Carter  and  the  largest 
of  its  glaciers  as  the  Carter  glacier. 

At  the  Republican  national  convention  of  1908  Senator 
Carter  was  successful  in  his  efforts  to  have  incorporated 
as  a  plank  in  the  party  platform  the  provision  calling  for 
the  establishing  of  postal  savings  banks,  and  he  put 
forth  his  claims  with  characteristic  vigor,  in  the  face 
of  the  bitter  opposition  of  the  National  Bankers'  Asso- 
ciation and  other  powerful  influences.  Apropos  of  this 
noble  measure  thus  fostered  by  Senator  Carter,  Hon. 
Lee  Mantle  has  spoken  in  the  following  terms : 

"In  1905  he  was  elected  to  his  second  term  in  the 
senate,  and  toward  its  close  he  had  formulated  and 
introduced  his  bill  for  the  creation  of  the  system  of 
postal  savings  banks.  He  had  long  been  impressed  with 
the  absolute  public  need  of  this  legislation  and  had  de- 
voted a  vast  amount  of  time  and  labor  and  research  to 
a  thorough  study  of  the  subject  and  to  the  operation  of 
the  system  in  other  lands.  The  bill  met  with  powerful 
and  stubborn  opposition  from  the  very  outset,  and  every 
inch  of  its  progress  was  vigorously  contested.  But 
nothing  could  withstand  the  force,  eloquence  and  per- 


sistence with  which  he  urged  it,  and  none  could  suc- 
cessfully controvert  the  facts,  figures  and  logic  with 
which  he  so  ably  defended  it.  And  finally  the  victory 
was  won  and  he  enjoyed  the  intense  gratification  of  see- 
ing this  beneficient  product  of  his  creative  genius,  into 
which  he  had  thrown  his  whole  heart,  power  and  influ- 
ence, become  a  law  of  the  land.  He  also  lived  to  see 
the  benignant  system  in  successful  operation  throughout 
the  nation  and  to  receive  praise  for  the  great  work 
which  he  had  accomplished  for  the  good  of  the  people 
in  general.  The  law  has  already  amply  vindicated  the 
statesmanship  and  foresight  of  its  author  and  has  be- 
come a  fixed  and  vital  part  of  our  government  policy, 
one  which  no  power  or  influence  can  ever  repeal.  Its 
enactment  was  the  climax,  the  crowning  act  of  Senator 
Carter's  brilliant  legislative  career  and  will  stand,  as  a 
lasting  and  worthy  monument  to  his  name  and  fame." 

In  1901  President  McKinlcy  voluntarily  appointed  Sen- 
ator Carter  commissioner  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase 
]-",xposition,  in  St.  Louis,  and  upon  the  assembling  of 
the  board  of  commissioners  the  Senator  was  chosen 
president,  a  position  which  he  acceptably  filled.  In 
March,  1911,  Senator  Carter  became  chairman  of  the 
American  section  of  the  newly  created  International 
Joint  Commission,  especially  charged  with  the  adjust- 
ment of  Canadian  boundary  matters,  and  death  came  to 
him  before  he  had  been  able  to  discharge  the  duties 
of  this  new  post,  which  he  had  assumed  with  character- 
istic vigor  and  earnestness. 

At  the  time  of  the  death  of  Senator  Carter  the  fol- 
lowing editorial  appeared  in  the  columns  of  the  Wash- 
ington Post:  "Former  Senator  Carter  was  one  of  the 
best  beloved  men  in  public  life.  His  manner  was  so 
hearty,  his  wit  v.'as  so  sharp  and  yet  sharp  in  such  a 
kindly  way,  that  all  his  fellows  loved  him.  He  was  a 
big,  brave-hearted  fighter,  unafraid  and  untrammeled 
except  by  his  own  strong  principles.  He  went  down 
fighting.  In  all  his  life  he  never  sought  cyclone  cellars. 
His  masterful  grasp  of  political  affairs  was  shown  in 
the  manner  in  which  he  brought  about  the  nomination 
of  Harrison  over  Blaine ;  that  Harrison  was  not  elected 
was  no  fault  of  Tom  Carter's.  His  usefulness  was  not 
over.  His  death,  coming  so  unexpectedly,  leaves  not 
only  Washington  and  Montana  but  also  the  whole  coun- 
try with  a  sense  of  shock  and  personal  loss."  Solemn 
high  mass  of  requiem  was  celebrated  at  St.  Paul's  church, 
Roman  Catholic,  in  the  city  of  Washington,  and,  in 
conformity  with  the  previously  expressed  wishes  of  the 
deceased,  the  services  were  simple  and  unostentatious. 
The  remains  of  Montana's  loved  and  distinguished  son 
were  laid  to  rest  in  beautiful  Mount  Olive  cemetery,  in 
the  national  capital.  He  was  a  devout  communicant  of 
the  Catholic  church,  as  is  also  Mrs.  Carter.  Prior  to 
touching,  and  with  consistent  brevity,  the  ideal  domestic 
chapter  in  the  life  history  of  Senator  Carter,  there  is 
all  of  consistency  in  perpetuating  in  this  enduring  form 
further  sentiments  from  the  memorial  address  delivered 
by  Hon.  Lee  Mantle : 

"He  was  one  of  the  most  affable  and  approachable  men 
in  public  life,  wholly  without  vanity  on  the  score  of  the 
great  honors  which  were  his.  He  was  born  and  reared 
among  the  common  people. — that  element  of  American 
citizenship  which  the  great  Lincoln  loved  so  well.  He 
was  familiar  with  their  lives;  he  knew  their  ways,  their 
thoughts  and  feelings  and  was  in  sympathy  with  their 
hopes  and  aspirations.  He  was  equally  at  ease  on  a 
cattle  ranch  on  Montana's  plains  or  the  floor  of  the 
senate  of  the  United  States ;  in  some  old  prospector's 
cabin  in  the  hills  or  in  the  company  of  the  chief  justice 
of  the  supreme  court  of  the  nation.  No  man  enjoying 
his  exceptional  honors  and  distinction  was  ever  more 
Democratic,  more  unassuming,  or  depended  less  for  his 
prestige  and  popularity  upon  the  mere  accessories  of 
official  power  and  position.  He  strove  tenaciously  and 
manfully  for  the  reward  which  came  to  him,  suffering 
the  'slings  and  arrows  of  outrageous  fortune,'  which  fre- 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


915 


quently  found  in  him  a  shining  mark,  with  patience  and 
fortitude.  He  was  undismayed  in  defeat  and  magnan- 
imous in  victory,  and  no  man  was  ever  more  ready  or 
wilHng  to  condone  a  personal  injury  or  forgive  a  wrong. 

"Senator  Carter's  life  was  an  unbroken  record  of  un- 
ceasing labor.  His  whole  heart  was  ever  in  his  vfovk, 
and  he  brought  to  it  a  combination  of  extraordinary 
qualities  such  as  are  seldom  found  in  one  man.  He 
was  of  a  philosophical  mind  and  gave  much  thought  to 
the  grave  problems  of  life  and  death.  He  received  the 
end  of  life's  activities  with  the  same  philosophic  calm 
and  fortitude  with  which  he  had  met  all  its  changing 
fortunes  and  vicissitudes.  He  shared  with  the  mass  oi 
mankind  that  faith,  hope  and  belief  planted  deep  down 
in  the  human  heart  by  an  all-wise  Greater,  in  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul." 

In  the  year  1886  was  solemnized  the  marriage  of 
Senator  Carter  to  Miss  Ellen  L.  Galen,  of  Helena,  and 
she  survives  him,  as  do  also  their  two  sons.  Mrs.  Garter 
is  a  daughter  of  the  late  Hugh  Galen,  one  of  the  well 
known  and  highly  honored  pioneers  of  Montana  and  a 
resident  of  Helena  at  the  time  of  his  death.  Mrs.  Garter 
is  a  woman  of  distinctive  culture  and  marked  social 
graciousness,  and  is  possessed  of  much  musical  and  liter- 
ary talent.  She  has  been  a  leader  in  the  representa- 
tive social  activities  of  Helena,  a  city  endeared  to  her 
by  many  hallowed  associations  and  memories,  and  has 
been  a  prominent  and  popular  figure  in  the  social  life 
of  the  national  capital,  where  she  still  passes  much  of 
her  time.  She  is  specially  active  in  connection  with 
religious  and  charitable  organizations  in  the  city  of 
Washington,  where,  she  is  vice-president  of  the  Christ 
Child  Society,  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of 
Providence  hospital,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Children's 
Guardian,  a  municipal  organization,  and  that  of  the 
Work  for  Poor  Churches.  In  1912  Mrs.  Carter  was 
elected  president  of  the  National  Federation  of  Catholic 
Women's  Charitable  Organizations,  and  she  is  also 
president  of  the  auxiliary  board  of  Trinity  College,  in 
Washington.  In  the  national  capital  she  is  a  member 
and  liberal  supporter  of  the  Catholic  parish  of  St. 
Paul's  church.  John  Galen  Carter,  the  elder  of  the  two 
sons,  was  born  at  Helena,  on  the  i8th  of  January,  1891, 
and  he  is  now  a  meml)er  of  the  class  of  1914  in  George- 
town University,  at  Georgetown,  D.  C.  In  1912  he  re- 
ceived his  first  political  honors  in  Montana,  by  serving 
as  a  delegate  to  the  Rcpul;)lican  county  convention  of 
Lewis  and  Clark  count}-,  and  as  a  delegate  to  the  state 
Republican  convention.  Hugh  Tiiomas,  the  younger 
son,  was  born  at  Helena  on  the  i8th  of  August,  1892. 
and  he  likewise  is  a  member  of  the  class  of  1914  in 
Georgetown  University-. 

John  Walker  Stamon.  During  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  of  active  connection  with  the  bar  of 
Great  Falls,  John  Walker  Stanton  has  attained  a  dis- 
tinctive position  as  a  lawyer  and  easily  stands  among  the 
leaders  of  his  profession  in  the  state  of  Montana.  His 
career  has  been  one  in  which  his  own  ability  has  played 
a  conspicuous  part,  and  he  has  always  relied  upon  the 
forces  of  his  own  mentality  and  character  rather  than 
upon  artifice  or  pretense  for  his  advancement,  and  the 
recognition  of  these  qualities  brought  him  to  his  high 
place  of  esteem  among  the  people  of  Great  Falls  and 
niany  otiier  sections  of  Montana. 

John  Walker  Stanton  was  born  on  a  farm  near  Cover- 
dale,  Indiana,  on  March  31,  1861.  His  ancestry,  originally 
Fnglish  and  Scotch  Irish,  goes  back  in  America  to  the 
time  of  the  Revolution,  in  which  one  or  more  of  his 
family  took  part  as  soldiers  in  the  Continental  line.  His 
parents  were  Thomas  and  Mary  (Walker)  Stanton. 
His  grandparents  came  froni  Virginia,  locating  in  Ten- 
nessee, where  Mr.  Stanton's  father  lived  until  moving 
to  Indiana.  The  mother  was  born  in  Ohio.  Her 
death  occurred  when  the  son  John  W.  was  seven  years 
old,  and  he  was  still  in  his  teens  when  left  an  orphan 

Vol.  II— 5 


by  the  death  of  his  father.  Fortune  thus  laid  upon  him 
at  an  early  age,  the  necessity  of  providing  for  him- 
self, and  preparing  for  a  larger  career  of  usefulness. 
His  education  was  attained  in  the  Indiana  public 
schools,  during  a  brief  attendance  at  high  school,  and 
he  studied  in  short  hand  and  business  and  normal 
colleges  for  brief  terms,  but  was  always  his  own 
chief  instructor  in  books.  Brought  up  on  a  farm,  he 
had  the  wholesome  and  vigorous  environment  of  country 
life,  and  perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  accomplishment 
of  his  whole  career  has  been  the  fact  that  from  boy- 
hood he  has  done  more  than  pull  his  own  weight. 
While  on  the  farm  he  performed  the  chores  and  other 
duties  while  attending  high  school  two  and  a  half 
miles  away,  a  distance  which  he  walked  every  day. 

In  April,  1882,  Mr.  Stanton  then  twenty-one  years 
of  age  made  a  trip  up  the  Missouri  River  by  steam- 
boat to  old  Fort  Benton.  It  was  this  visit  which  de- 
termined him  to  make  Montana  his  future  home.  Re- 
turning to  the  central  states  he  took  up  the  study  of 
law  in  Indiana  and  Missouri,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  at  Sedalia  in  the  latter  state  January  30,  1886. 
On  August  13,  1886,  having  arrived  in  Montana,  he 
was  admitted  to  practice  before  the  supreme  court 
of  the  territory.  Some  months  later,  in  March,  1887, 
Mr.  Stanton  opened  his  law  office  at  Great  Falls,  and 
has  been  continuously  identified  with  his  profession 
in  that  city  ever  since.  When  Great  Falls  was  in- 
corporated as  a  city  in  1887,  he  was  elected  the  first 
cit}'  attorney.  From  May,  1905,  to  the  same  month  in 
19x1,  he  again  served  in  that  office.  In  politics  he  has 
voted  the  Democratic  ticket,  since  the  early  eighties, 
and  was  an  influential  factor  during  the  campaigns  of 
Mr.  Bryan  and  Mr.  Wilson  for  the  presidency. 

At  Great  Falls,  September  17,  1891,  occurred  the 
marriage  of  Mr.  Stanton  to  Miss  Lulu  Burghardt,  of 
Chicago.  Her  father  was  George  H.  Burghardt,  a 
veteran  of  the  Civil  war  and  now  deceased.  Her 
mother  is  Lucy  A.  Burghardt,  now  a  resident  of 
San  Francisco.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stanton  have  a  most 
felicitous  home  life,  and  through  twenty-two  years 
they  have  rejoiced  in  the  beauty  of  an  undimmed  matri- 
monial sky.  His  home  has  been  the  object  of  Mr. 
Stanton's  first  thought  and  care,  and  to  the  companion- 
ship existing  between  himself  and  wife  have  also  been 
added  the  blessing  of  four  chldren,  who  are  still  living: 
Misses  Pansy,  Luc}',  and  Viola,  and  Willard  Quiiicy 
Stanton.  In  the  winter  of  1912-13  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stan- 
ton traveled  extensively  in  Japan,  China  and  the  Philip- 
pines. The  family  are  members  of  the  First  Congrega- 
tional church  of  Great  Falls.  Fraternally  Mr.  Stanton 
is  well  known  in  the  Orders  of  Masonry,  Woodmen 
of  the  World,  Modern  Woodmen'  of  America,  the 
Maccabees,  and  especially  among  the  Knights  of 
Pythias.  In  1910  he  attended  the  convention  of  the 
Supreme  Lodge  of  the  Knights  of  Pythias  held  at 
Milwaukee,  and  again  at  Denver  in  1912,  as  supreme 
representative  from  Montana.  He  was  a  member  of 
important  committees,  and  took  an  active  part  in  the 
affairs  of  the  order,  especially  in  framing  legislation 
for  an  order  which  comprises  seven  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-five thousand  members  in  the  United  States. 

Joseph  N.  Ireland.  With  the  exception  of  the  ac- 
counts of  exploration  and  discovery,  the  operations 
of  the  old  fur-trading  companies  and  similar  activities, 
the  history  of  Idaho's  substantial  and  real  develop- 
ment might  well  be  condensed  in  a  period  of  half  a 
century.  Fifty  years  ago  there  were  only  a  military  and 
trading  post  and  a  few  mining  camps  and  prospectors 
in  all  the  territory  of  Idaho.  It  is  remarkable,  how- 
ever, that  only  a  very  few  living  men  have  been  per- 
sonal witnesses  and  actors  in  tliis  half-century  era  of 
historical  progress.  Those  who  sought  fortune  and 
adventure  in  Idaho  during  the  early  sixties  were  the 
pioneers  of  pioneers,  and  it  is  with  more  than  ordinary 


916 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


interest  that  the  modern  reader  will  peruse  the  details 
of  a  career  which  has  continued  from  that  time  down 
to  the  present.  One  of  these  old  settlers  whose  con- 
temporaries were  the  gold-hunters  who  were  first  at- 
tracted into  Idaho  was  Mr.  Joseph  N.  Ireland,  now 
vice-president  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Pocatello, 
but  in  the  main  living  retired  after  his  long  and  active 
career.  Mr.  Ireland  knew  practically  all  the  early 
men  of  this  country,  and  there  is  no  better  informed 
man  anywhere  concerning  the  history,  the  resources 
and  the  general  character  of  southern  Idaho.  He 
lived  and  had  his  part  in  those  stirring  days,  which 
were  so  remarkable  for  their  individualism  and  also 
for  their  helpful  cooperation,  and  he  not  only  wit- 
nessed but  took  part  in  the  formation  of  those  agencies 
which  were  preliminary  to  the  establishment  of  formal 
Civil  government  in  the  northwest  country. 

Mr.  Ireland  was  born  in  Calvert  county,  Maryland, 
May  15,  1839,  a  son  of  Thomas  and  Rebecca  (Wilson) 
Ireland.  The  old  homestead  where  both  father  and 
grandfather  were  born  was  in  Calvert  county,  some 
sixty  miles  below  Baltimore,  and  now  belongs  to  Philip 
Ireland,  a  nephew  of  Joseph  N.  Ireland.  The  earlier 
members  of  the  family  gave  service  during  the  Revo- 
lutionary war,  so  that  the  stock  is  long  established 
in  America.  The  father  died  in  1847  at  the  age  of 
fifty  and  the  mother  also  a  native  of  Maryland  died 
in  1857,  aged  fifty-seven.  Joseph  N.  Ireland  attended 
the  district  school  near  his  home,  and  at  the  age  of 
fourteen  was  sent  to  Baltimore  to  learn  the  saddlers' 
trade.  Eight  years  later  he  resolved  that  the  West 
should  furnish  him  his  opportunity  and  by  a  long  trip 
across  the  Middle  West  reached  Omaha,  Nebraska. 
That  was  then  the  frontier  outfitting  point  for  travel 
into  the  Northwest.  As  soon  as  possible  he  joined  an 
immigrant  train,  which  left  June  14,  1862,  and  which 
was  three  months  enroute.  When  it  arrived  in  what 
is  now  Bannack  county,  Idaho,  the  party  split  up  and 
Mr.  Ireland,  with  H.  Hendee  and  his  wife,  the  latter 
having  been  the  first  woman  to  go  into  the  mines  of 
Montana  proceeded  to  the  new  diggings.  When  Mr. 
Ireland  and  his  companions  reached  Beaver  Head,  Mon- 
tana, a  man  named  William  Gibson  came  to  the  camp 
on  trail  to  advise  them  of  the  discovery  of  gold  by 
himself  and  others  in  a  creek  they  named  Grasshopper, 
which  is  now  Bannack,  Montana.  His  object  in  coming 
to  the  trail  was  to  induce  immigrants  to  come  to  the 
camp,  this  he  did  by  posting  a  placard  on  the  trail 
giving  the  direction 'to  the  mines.  The  destination  of 
immigrants  was  Oregon,  particularly  Florence  on 
Salmon  River  and  Frazier  River,  B.  C.  Buffalo  Gulch 
in  the  Bannack  region  was  named  by  Mr.  Ireland,  and 
he  and  his  companions  got  some  gold  there. 

It  will  be  much  more  interesting  to  follow  Mr. 
Ireland's  adventures  in  the  new  country  through  the 
medium  of  his  own  reminiscences  covering  the  time 
he  started  West,  until  about  1874  or  1875.  These  recol- 
lections of  an  old  pioneer  present  a  very  vivid  account 
of  social  conditions  and  law  and  order  as  maintained  in 
the  early  mining  camps,  and  this  history  of  Idaho  con- 
tains no  more  illuminating  factor  in  those  few  years 
than  the  following  account  from  the  words  of  Mr.  Ire- 
land.    He  says : 

"I  crossed  the  plains  in  1862,  left  Omaha,  June  14, 
and  arrived  at  a  place  about  twenty  miles  from  where 
Bannack  City,  Montana,  now  is  on  the  twenty-ninth 
of  August.  They  had  just  discovered  gold  there.  One 
of  the  discoverers  came  out  to  the  immigrant  road  and 
struck  our  camp  telling  us  of  the  find,  and  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Hendee  and  myself  left  the  outfit  and  went  to  the 
camp.  Montana  did  not  exist,  and  Washington  terri- 
tory at  the  time  extended  as  far  east  as  the  Nebraska 
line.  The  men  who  discovered  the  gold  on  Grass- 
hopper were  Colonel  McClain,  first  delegate  to  congress 
from  the  territory  of  Montana,  Washington  Stapleton, 
William  Gibson,  a  man  named  Root  and  another  called 


David,  and  another  whose  name  was  Dance.  Within 
the  next  thirty  days  about  thirty  more  men  came  in. 
About  that  time  the  Bannack  Indians  came  in  on  us, 
about  four  or  five  hundred  warriors,  with  Winnemutta 
as  their  chief.  He  was  the  great  Piute  chief.  The 
most  of  the  Indians  wanted  to  drive  us  out  of  the 
country  or  kill  us,  but  Winnemutta  prevailed  on  them 
to  let  us  go  and  told  them  if  they  killed  us  more  white 
men  would  come  out  to  avenge  our  deaths  than  there 
was  grass  on  the  meadow  where  we  were  then.  We 
parleyed  with  them  about  three  or  four  days,  and  they 
agreed  to  let  us  stay,  providing  we  dig  the  gold  and 
leave  the  country  the  next  year,  and  not  raise  any  wheat 
which  meant  farming  with  the  Indians.  We  had  to 
give  them  the  larger  portions  of  the  supplies  we  had. 
We  invited  them  to  come  back  that  way  in  the  spring,, 
and  trade  their  furs  with  us.  During  the  parley  with 
the  Indians,  the  peace-pipe  was  smoked,  Indians  and 
white  men  taking  their  turn  at  the  pipe  as  it  was  passed 
around  the  circle.  There  were  two  or  more  circles 
smoking  at  the  same  time.  The  Indians  were  then 
going  on  a  buffalo  hunt  in  the  Yellowstone. 

"In  April  or  May  of  1863  they  came  back,  seeming 
friendly,  and  camped  about  four  or  five  miles  from 
Bannack.  In  the  meantime  Bannack  had  grown  to 
have  a  population  of  about  five  hundred,  principally 
men,  among  them  many  tough  characters.  Instead  of 
leaving  the  country  as  we  had  promised,  a  band  prin- 
cipally of  these  toughs  was  organized  to  attack  the 
Indians  in  the  night  and  kill  them  all  and  capture 
their  ponies  and  furs.  The  attack  was  to  be  made 
between  twelve  o'clock  and  daylight,  while  they  were 
asleep  in  their  wickiups.  A  half-breed  Indian  and  a 
Frenchman  learned  of  the  plan  and  told  the  Indians,  and 
they  were  lying  along  the  Creek  waiting  for  the  at- 
tack. The  leader  of  the  attacking  party  and  most  of 
his  men  got  drunk  before  the  hour  set  for  the  attack 
and  the  plan  fell  through.  The  next  day  the  Indians 
were  a  little  shy,  but  some  of  them  came  into  town. 
Buck  Simpson,  Hayes  Lyons,  Skinner  and  others  of 
the  same  kind  (these  men  were  hung  by  the  vigiliant 
committee  the  next  year)  fired  into  the  Indians  on 
the  street  and  killed  two  or  three  of  them,  and  the 
Indians  left  the  country,  kiUing  one  man  by  the  name 
of  Guy  on  their  way  out. 

"The  winter  of  1862-63  was  a  very  dreary  one  in- 
Bannack.  One  of  the  first  men  who  came  in  after  the 
Indians  had  taken  our  supplies  was  Mr.  Woodmansee 
of  Salt  Lake,  with  three  or  four  wagonloads  of  pro- 
visions, principally  bacon,  beans,  and  black  flour.  Al- 
though of  poor  quality,  the  people  bought  all  he  had. 
We  built  a  few  log  cabins  and  fixed  for  the  winter. 
We  were  snow-bound  from  the  last  of  November  until 
about  April.  A  man  named  Hod  Conover  agreed  to 
go  to  Salt  Lake  and  take  the  mail,  if  we  could  assure 
him  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  letters,  at  two  dollars 
and  a  half  per  letter.  This  did  not  seem  an  exorbitant 
price.  During  the  winter  a  few  stragglers  came  in. 
Poker  playing  was  the  chief  occupation.  Beans  were 
used  for  chips,  and  gold  dust  was  our  money.  The 
monotony  of  the  winter  was  broken  by  the  killing  of 
a  man  named  Cleveland,  by  Henry  Plummer.  It  was 
reported  that  Cleveland  was  a  horse  thief,  so  nothing 
was  done  with  Plummer.  But  only  two  or  three  weeks 
later  a  man  by  the  name  of  Kossuth  was  killed  and 
three  wounded,  John  Burnett,  Sam  Ellis  and  another. 
The  trouble  came  over  an  Indian  squaw  that  a  man 
named  Moore  had  bought,  making  payment  in  a  pair  of 
blankets.  The  squaw  went  back  to  her  father,  but 
the  blankets  were  not  returned.  Moore  and  Reeves 
went  in  the  night  to  the  Indian  camp  and  fired  at  the 
tent  and  killed  a  white  man,  and  wounded  three  others 
who  had  gone  into  see  what  the  trouble  was  about. 
Before  morning  Moore  and  Reeves  found  that  it  was 
best  for  them  to  leave  the  country,  and  Plummer  got 
alarmed   and   went   with    them.      Walker    Lear   and   a 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


917 


man  named  Higgins  and  one  or  two  others  followed 
them  up.  The  snow  was  so  deep  they  could  not  get 
away  and  Lear  and  Higgins  with  their  companions 
arrested  Moore,  Reeves  and  Plummer  and  brought 
them  back.  A  miners'  meeting  was  called  and  a  trial 
held  and  they  were  acquited.  After  the  acquittal  they 
spotted  every  man  who  had  had  anything  to  do  with 
their  arrest.  There  seemed  to  be  a  general  under- 
standing in  the  country  at  that  time  when  two  people 
had  had  trouble,  and  they  parted,  the  next  time  they 
met  one  or  the  other  had  to  ■  die,  so  Plummer  and 
Crawford  got  to  carrying  guns  for  each  other.  Craw- 
ford happened  to  get  the  first  chance  and  shot  Plummer 
in  the  arm.  After  Plummer  got  well  Crawford  kept 
himself  concealed  until  he  could  get  out  of  the  country, 
and  never  came  back. 

"There  was  no  law  in  the  country.  If  a  man  owed 
you  money  and  did  not  want  to  pay,  you  might  have 
to  collect  it  at  the  muzzle  of  a  gun,  and  it  was  often 
done.  In  part,  it  was  the  only  way  to  make  a  col- 
lection. Highwaymen  were  numerous,  even  operating 
by  day,  and  warned  their  victims  that  if  they  'peached' 
they  would  meet  death  at  the  hands  of  some  of  the 
band.  Towards  spring  seven  men  started  out  to  pros- 
pect. Bill  Fairweather,  Barney  Hughes,  Tom  Coover, 
Edgar,  Harry  Rodgers,  Bill  Sweeney  and  George  Orr, 
George  Orr  was  taken  sick  and  stopped  at  Deer  Lodge 
with  some  half  breed.  The  others  went  out  to  the 
Yellowstone  country.  The  Indians  took  nearly  every- 
thing they  had  and  drove  them  out  of  the  country. 
On  their  way  back  they  discovered  Alder  Gulch,  said 
to  be  the  richest  gulch  of  placer  mining  that  ever  was 
discovered  in  the  world.  They  prospected  the  gulch 
and  each  man  located  a  discovery  claim  of  one  hun- 
dred feet  up  and  down  the  creek  both  sides,  and  one 
hundred  feet  of  a  preemption  claim,  thus  giving  each 
man  two  hundred  feet.  These  men  came  back  to 
Bannack  and  told  what  they  had  found  and  on  the 
seventh  of  June,  1863,  they  went  in  with  a  stampede 
about  seventy-five  men,  I  among  them.  We  all  rushed 
up  the  creek  to  see  who  would  get  the  next  claim. 
As  soon  as  a  claim  was  located  the  next  thing  was 
to  get  sluice  boxes  to  wash  the  gold.  Lumber  had 
to  be  sawed  by  hand,  and  cost  fifty  cents  a  running 
foot. 

"During  the  summer  people  came  in  from  all  di- 
rections, attracted  by  the  reports  of  the  rich  pros- 
pects, and  by  fall  there  were  at  least  five  thousand 
people  living  here. 

"There  was  a  band  of  road-agents  organized  in  1863 
in  Bannack.  A  man  by  the  name  of  Dillington  joined 
them  for  the  purpose  of  betraying  them.  He  learned 
they  were  about  to  rob  a  man  by  the  name  of  Todd, 
and  informed  the  latter.  Mr.  Tood,  who  knew  some 
of  the  men  belonging  to  this  band  foolishly  asked  them 
if  they  had  intended  to  rob  him.  The  men,  of  course, 
denied  it,  and  asked  him  where  he  got  his  information, 
and  he  said  Dillingham  was  the  source  of  it.  Dilling- 
ham was  in  Alder  Gulch  at  the  time.  The  men  left 
Bannack  and  came  to  Alder  after  him  and  found  him 
sitting  in  a  circle  of  men.  I  was  in  that  circle.  They 
called  him  out,  saying  they  wanted  to  see  him.  He 
had  hardly  gone  twenty  feet,  when  they  shot  him.  Buck 
Stimpson,  Charlie  Forbes,  and  Hayes  Lyons  were  the 
men  who  called  Dillingham  out  and  shot  him,  Charlie 
Forbes  being  the  man  who  fired  the  fatal  shot.  The 
sherifif  and  the  deputies  were  themselves  all  highway- 
men. The  killers  of  Dillingham  were  arrested,  and 
a  miners'  meeting  called.  An  attorney  by  the  name  of 
A.  P.  H.  Smith  defended  and  he  got  the  miners  to 
try  Forbes  by  himself.  Forbes  claiming  to  a  Southern 
man  from  New  Orleans  asserted  that  Dillingham  had 
charged  the  former  with  being  a  highwayman  which 
was  more  than  this  Southern  gentleman  would  stand. 
The  camps  being  stocked  with  a  good  many  Seces- 
sionists who  had  left  Missouri  and  other  states,  the 
sentiment   was   in   favor   of   Forbes,   and   they   cleared 


him.  Then  they  tried  the  other  two  men  and  con- 
victed them,  built  the  scaffold  and  dug  the  grave.  At 
that  point  the  attorney  got  the  miners  to  take  another 
vote.  This  you  remember  was  right  in  sight  of  the 
gallows  and  graves.  In  the  first  point  it  was  claimed  a 
mistake  had  been  made.  When  about  two-thirds  of  the 
vote  had  been  counted  on  the  second  ballot  there 
was  a  cry  raised  that  the  prisoners  were  cleared,  and 
in  the  excitement  the  outlaws  were  put  on  horses  and 
rode  out  of  the   country. 

"I  left  Alder  Gulch  in  the  fall  and  came  to  Bannack, 
and  just  after  I  reached  there  the  miners  hung  a  little 
Irishman  for  killing  a  man  named  Keeley.  The  Irish- 
man had  committed  the  murder  for  money.  In  Alder 
Gulch  a  man  named  George  Ives  killed  a  young  fellow 
for  his  money,  and  the  miners'  meeting  convened  and 
hung  Ives  and  on  the  strength  of  this  affair  a  vigilance 
committee  was  formed  that  winter  and  twenty-five  or 
thirty  of  these  highwaymen  were  hung.  Among  them 
was  the  sheriff,  Henry  Plummer,  Deputy  Sheriff  Jack 
Gallagher,  Skinner,  Buck  Stimpson,  Hayes  Lawrence, 
Ned  Ray,  Boone  Hellem,  Bill  Hunter.  A  Mexican  was 
shot  to  death  by  the  vigilantes  for  killing  one  of  their 
number.  After  shooting  the  Mexican  they  pulled  down 
his  cabin  and  put  his  body  on  the  pile,  set  fire  to  them 
all,  and  burned  the  whole  thing.  Slade  was  also  hung, 
but  he  was  not  a  highwayman,  but  a  dangerous  man 
in  the  community." 

In  the  meantime  having  accumulated  a  considerable 
fortune  in  nuggets  and  free  gold,  Mr.  Ireland  in  the 
fall  of  1863  returned  to  Omaha,  he  and  his  partners 
driving  a  wagon  overland  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and  thence 
east  to  Omaha,  where  the  proceeds  of  their  ventures 
were  carefully  deposited.  In  the  spring  of  1864  Mr. 
Ireland  once  more  went  into  the  western  country  and 
located  at  Fort  Hall,  which  was  the  first  military  post 
in  Idaho  territory,  having  been  established  in  1869. 
Here  once  more  we  take  up  the  personal  narrative  and 
description  of  his  own  adventures  and  conditions  in 
Idaho  territory  for  the  next  year  or  so. 

"The  first  government  stage  was  put  on  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1864  to  carry  the  mail  from  Salt  Lake  to  Mon- 
tana, and  from  Fort  Hall  to  Boise.  It  was  called  the 
main  line  to  Montana,  and  to  Boise  was  a  branch  line. 
There  had  been  a  private  mail  line  from  Montana 
to  Salt  Lake  owned  by  Oliver  and  Conover,  but  when 
the  government  line  was  put  on  they  took  their  stages 
off  and  ran  them  to  different  camps  in  Montana.  The 
government  contract  was  let  to  Ben  Holliday.  The 
first  stage  robbery  was  near  Pocatello  in  1863.  The 
station  was  on  Pocatello  Creek  and  about  two  miles 
south  of  the  creek  in  a  little  hollow  the  robbery  oc- 
curred. The  robbers  were  led  by  a  man  named  Brocky 
Jack.  They  got  about  six  or  seven  thousand  dollars 
from  the  passengers.  A  man  named  Jack  Hughes 
from  Denver  had  most  of  the  money.  Hughes  com- 
plained to  Brocky  Jack  that  not  enough  had  been  left 
him  to  pay  for  his  meals  back  to  Denver,  so  Brocky 
Jack  very  liberally  returned  him  twenty  dollars  in 
order  to  get  home. 

"The  first  winter  after  the  establishment  of  the 
government  stage  line  there  was  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
in  getting  the  mail  through.  The  contract  for  building 
the  station  on  the  Boise  branch  and  putting  up  the 
hay  for  the  winter  was  left  to  James  Lockett  for  so 
many  dollars  per  ton,  and  so  many  dollars  for  the 
building  of  each  station.  Lockett  was  a  hard-working 
industrious  man.  When  the  paymaster  from  the  East 
came  along  he  paid  Lockett  in  greenback  dollars,  which 
at  that  time  were  worth  but  forty-five  cents  on  the 
dollar  in  New  York,  and  in  this  country  they  were 
used  only  as  curiosities,  men  lighting  their  cigars  with 
them,  and  pasting  them  up  over  the  bars  and  similar 
facetious  uses  of  them  were  made.  Getting  paid  in 
greenbacks  cut  down  Lockett's  price  more  than  half. 
The  result  of  that  settlement  was  that  Lockett  and  his 
friends  burned  up  the  hay  at  the  stations,  so  that  there 


918 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


was  nothing  for  the  stock  to  eat,  and  the  carrying  of 
the  mail  to  Boise  failed  on  that  account.  Most  of 
the  men  remained  on  the  road  and  took  care  of  the 
stock  as  best  they  could,  but  there  was  no  provisions 
for  them  and  they  had  to  live  on  the  barley  which 
had  been  brought  in  for  the  mules.  There  were  some 
game  that  could  have  been  gotten  if  the  men  had  been 
prepared  to  hunt,  but  most  of  them  only  had  six- 
shooters.  On  the  mainline  to  Montana  they  got  through 
a  stage  occasionally.  The  Indians  were  not  on  the 
war  path,  but  they  stole  a  good  many  mules  to  kill  and 
eat.  The  snow  was  not  so  deep  but  that  a  mule  or 
horse  could  pick  his  living,  but  the  range  was  so  poor 
that  the  mules  would  not  be  strong  enough  to  pull 
a  stage.  There  were  two  Indians  who  pretended  to  be 
friendly,  and  said  they  would  tell  the  whites  when 
the  Indians  were  coming  to  steal,  but  in  reality  they 
were  spies.  These  Indians  hung  around  King  Hill 
Station  on  Snake  River,  where  Tom  Oakley  stayed 
most  of  the  winter.  The  Redmen  were  about  the  sta- 
tion a  good  deal,  and  finally  one  day  while  he  still  had 
some  beans  left,  Tom  was  boiling  some  for  dinner,  and 
when  they  were  about  half  done  they  scorched.  He 
was  about  to  throw  them  out  when  an  Indian  came 
and  he  gave  them  to  the  latter.  The  Indian  gorged 
himself,  and  in  about  two  hours  died  of  indigestion. 

"In  the  spring  Pete  McManis,  the  division  agent,  came 
through  from  Boise,  trying  to  get  the  mail  through. 
When  he  reached  King  Hill,  he  told  the  assistant 
division  agent  Oakley  to  go  along  wi,th  him.  A  man 
called  Yank  and  myself  were  at  King  Hill  that  winter, 
and  we  were  to  follow  them,  but  first  Oakley  told  Yank 
to  take  the  oxen  and  haul  out  a  wagon  that  had  mired 
down  near  the  camp  the  fall  before.  Yank  took  the 
oxen  and  in  trying  to  get  out  the  wagon  they  mired 
down.  Oakley  saw  from  the  road  what  had  happened 
and  came  back  to  the  station.  In  the  meantime  the 
other  Indian,  of  the  two  spies,  had  come  in  with  a 
prairie  hen  that  he  wanted  to  trade  for  something.  I 
told  him  to  see  Oakley,  I  was  not  the  station  agent. 
Oakley  came  up  just  then  vexed  at  having  to  come 
back  and  told  the  Indian  to  get  out  of  the  door.  The 
latter  did  not  move,  and  Oakley  took  him  by  the  lapel 
of  the  coat  and  jerked  him  out.  The  men  in  the  stage 
called  to  him  to  shoot  the  Indian,  and  Oakley  pulled 
out  his  gun  and  was  going  to  do  so,  but  I  said  'don't 
kill  him,'  and  he  put  up  his  gun  and  told  the  Indian 
to  get  off  the  place.  The  Indian  went  very  sulkily,  and 
the  witnesses  once  more  called  out,  'Why  don't  you 
kill  him?'  and  then  Oakley  pulled  out  his  gun  and  shot 
the  Indian  dead.  Just  at  that  moment  the  oxen  came 
up  with  the  log  chain  dragging  behind  them,  having 
extricated  themselves  out  of  the  mudhole.  Oakley  said, 
'Here  Yank  put  the  log  chain  around  the  Indian's 
neck,  and  drag  him  away  from  the  station.'  Yank 
obeyed  orders,  and  hitched  on  the  oxen  and  dragged 
the  body  off.  It  was  all  done  as  if  it  was  a  matter  of 
business.  Oakley  was  not  a  bad  man,  but  he  hated 
a  thief,  and  ke  knew  these  Indians  were  stealing  the 
mules  or  helping  other  Indians  to  steal  them. 

"In  1865  the  stage  line  was  changed  from  over  Bannack 
Mountain  to  Portneuf  Canyon,  and  in  the  fall  a  stage 
robbery  occurred  in  Portneuf  Canyon,  at  which  sixty- 
thousand  dollars  was  obtained  by  the  robbers  and 
four  men  were  killed  and  one  wounded.  Lockett  de- 
termined to  get  even  with  Holliday  on  account  of  being 
paid  in  greenbacks  instead  of  gold  for  building  the 
stage  stations,  and  providing  the  hay  for  the  stage  lines. 
Holliday  had  a  partner  named  William  L.  Halsey,  a 
banker  of  Salt  Lake.  Halsey  was  expected  to  go 
through  on  the  stage  from  Helena  to  Salt  Lake,  taking 
with  him  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  in 
money.  Lockett  resolved  to  rob  the  stage  the  day 
Halsey  was  on.  The  driver  stood  in  with  Lockett  and 
was  to  give  the  information  as  to  when  Halsey  would 
be  through.  Halsey  feared  he  would  be  robbed  and 
hurried    through    the    stages    he    was    on    until    he    got 


twelve  hours  ahead  of  schedule.  The  robbers  not  look- 
ing for  him  so  early,  he  and  his  treasure  escaped  with- 
out danger.  Lockett  being  disappointed  in  this  venture, 
determined  then  to  rob  the  stage  when  there  was  an- 
other lot  of  money  on  board.  There  was  a  St.  Louis 
firm  that  had  a  branch  business  in  Helena.  One  of 
the  partners  had  been  killed  by  another  man  named 
McCausland,  and  the  other  St.  Louis  partner,  David 
Dinan  came  out  to  'settle  up  matters  and  bring  back 
the  money.  It  was  known  that  a  large  sum  was  handled, 
and  the  stage  driver  iiotified  Lockett  of  the  coming. 
When  the  stage  reached  a  narrow  place  in  the  canyon 
about  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  south  of  Pocatello,  the 
robbers  who  were  hidden  in  the  willows  held  up  the 
stage.  The  passengers  were  all  sitting  with  their  guns 
pointing  out  of  the  stage,  and  as  soon  as  they  saw  the 
robbers  they  shot  over  them,  and  then  the  highwaymen 
began  firing  and  killed  McCausland,  Dinan  and  Law- 
rence Merse.  The  fourth  man  I  do  not  recall  by  name. 
The  driver, 'of  course,  was  uninjured  and  none  of  the 
robbers  were  hurt.  There  were  five  in  the  gang. 
Frank  Williams  was  the  driver,  and  one  of  the  passen- 
gers  named   Carpenter   escaped   without   injury." 

When  Mr.  Ireland  returned  to  Idaho  in  the  spring 
of  1864,  he  became  one  of  the  contractors  for  Ben 
Holliday,  and  helped  to  build  the  first  stage  station 
along  the  Holliday  line.  The  most  noted  of  these  was 
Fort  Hall,  two  miles  from  which  site  had  previously 
stood  the  old  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  post.  He  was 
engaged  more  or  less  in  this  building  and  contracting 
from  1864  to  1870,  and  then  got  into  the  cattle  business, 
and  he  was  one  of  the  first  cattlemen  in  this  section 
of  Idaho.  The  first  cattle  that  he  used  in  stocking  the 
range  were  driven  up  from  Texas,  and  were  the  tjpical 
Texas  longhorn.  Mr.  Ireland  became  successful  as  a 
cattle  raiser,  and  afterwards  sold  hundreds  of  head  to 
Mr.  Swift  of  the  Swift  Packing  Company. 

Probably  no  other  living  resident  of  Idaho  has  a 
longer  and  broader  view  of  the  basic  industrial  activity 
which  have  made  the  wealth  of  the  Gem  State  than 
Mr.  Ireland.  Fortunate  in  his  early  mining  adventures, 
and  meeting  with  similar  success  in  ranching  he  con- 
tinued to  give  his  personal  superintendence  to  his  large 
interests  in  stock  and  lands  until  1905,  when  faihng 
eyesight  caused  him  to  retire.  For  thirty  years  the 
home  and  business  headquarters  of  Mr.  Ireland  were 
at  Malad  City,  where  all  his  children  were  born.  He 
sold  his  ranch  there  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  and 
about  fifteen  years  ago  bought  stock  in  the  First  Na- 
tional Bank  of  Pocatello.  In  1905  he  moved  to  the 
latter  city,  and  took  the  place  of  vice  president  in 
the  list  of  officers  of  the  bank.  Soon  after  moving  to 
Pocatello  he  was  elected  as  vice  president  of  the  bank, 
became  a  director  in  the  Standrod  and  Company  State 
Bank  of  Blackfoot,  a  director  in  the  J.  N.  Ireland  & 
Company  State  Bank  in  Malad,  is  a  director  in  the 
Commercial  National  Bank  at  Ogden,  Utah,  and  has 
stock  in  other  banks.  Mr.  Ireland's  first  marriage  was 
celebrated  in  1877  at  Baltimore  when  Miss  Virginia 
Yateman  became  his  wife.  She  died  at  Malad,  Idaho, 
in  1888,  leaving  two  daughters,  Mrs.  John  P.  Congdon 
of  Boise,  who  was  born  in  Malad  in  1878  and  has  two 
children,  John  Ireland  Congdon  and  Nathaniel  Ward 
Congdon ;  and  Ethelinda,  now  Airs.  Dr.  Frank  Sprague, 
born  at  Malad  in  1888,  and  a  resident  of  Bellingham, 
Washington.  Mr.  Ireland  was  married  the  second  time 
at  Baltimore  in  October,  1905,  to  Miss  Phillipina  Stans- 
bury.  His  church  is  the  Methodist.  He  has  always 
been  a  Republican  in  politics,  and  during  the  territorial 
period  served  as  a  member  of  the  Idaho  legislature. 

Ela  Collins  Waters.  The  lives  of  few  Montana 
citizens  contain  so  much  of  dramatic  interest  as  that 
of  Ela  Collins  Waters,  who  for  more  than  thirty  years 
has  played  the  part  of  a  man  of  big  affairs  in  this  state. 
His  record  is  a  true  human  document,  and  illustrates 
much  that  has  been  characteristic  of  the  period  of  en- 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


919 


terprise  and  action  which  tilled  in  the  half  century  from 
the  Civil  war  to  modern  times. 

Ela  Collins  Waters  was  born  May  5,  1849,  at  Martins- 
burg,  Lewis  county,  New  York.  His  father.  Homer 
Collins  Waters,  was  a  farmer  and  stock  raiser  in  early 
life  and  later  on  in  the  lumber  business  at  Fond  du 
Lac,  Wisconsin.  His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Ade- 
line Rockwell,  who  was  born  in  Connecticut.  She  was 
a  descendant  of  Jonathan  Trumbull.  The  family  moved 
out  to  Fond  du  Lac,  Wisconsin,  in  1849,  where  the 
mother  married  a  second  time  several  years  after  the 
death  of  Mr.  Waters,  becoming  the  wife  of  William  M. 
Alsever.  There  were  five  Waters  children  and  two 
Alsevers,  the  family  being  named :  Kelsey  Theodore, 
Ela  Collins,  Josephine  Arvilla,  Emma  Augusta  and 
Homer  Merton.  The  two  Alsever  children  were  Mon- 
roe and  Adeline. 

The  education  of  I\Ir.  Waters  was  obtained  in  the 
public  schools  at  Fond  du  Lac  until  1864.  After  his 
return  from  the  war  he  attended  Ripon  College  and  a 
select  school  where  he  studied  the  primary  grammar 
and  college  courses,  such  as  Latin,  history,  algebra, 
etc.,  but  left  school  before  graduating.  By  his  elders 
young  Waters  was  called  a  wild,  headstrong  boy,  who 
would  rather  play  than  study.  His  mind  was  more  on 
marbles,  kite  flying,  swimming,  and  raising  chickens 
than  on  books,  though  he  could  learn  easily  enough 
when  he  applied  his  mind  to  the  task.  He  was  very 
much  afraid  that  something  might  happen  which  he 
would  not  see.  As  a  boy  he  was  somewhat  pugnacious. 
He  was  expelled  from  school  many  times  for  these 
traits.  He  could  never  keep  still  in  school,  and  it  is 
still  one  of  his  physical  characteristics. 

He  was  turned  out  of  school  during  the  winter  of 
1863-64  and  enlisted  in  the  army,  but  was  declined,  since 
he  was  a  very  slim  lad.  In  the  spring  of  1864  he  went 
in  as  a  drummer  boy  and  was  accepted,  being  mustered 
in  on  April  15,  1864,  and  serving  until  the  end  of  the 
war.  The  colonel  of  the  regiment  offered  him  for  his 
meritorious  conduct  a  lieutenancy,  which  he  refused  be- 
fore he  was  sixteen  years  of  age.  In  an  account  writ- 
ten and  published  in  a  Wisconsin  paper.  Colonel  Pier 
after  assigning  credit  to  various  other  men  in  his  regi- 
ment concluded  with  the  assertion  "a  braver  lad  than 
Ela  Waters  never  lived."  The  lieutenant  of  his  com- 
pany (A.  A.  Dye)  in  a  letter  which  is  somewhat  con- 
densed in  form  for  publication  here  wrote :  "Captain 
E.  C.  Waters  of  Fond  du  Lac,  Wisconsin,  served  in 
my  company,  'A'  Thirty-eighth  Wisconsin  Volunteer 
Infantry,  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  and  he  was 
an  unusually  brave  and  faithful  soldier.  Although  a 
musician  and  not  required  to  bear  arms,  he  went  into 
every  fight  and  carried  a  musket  in  every  engagement  in 
which  the  regiment  participated. 

"I  well  remember  that  on  March  25,  1865,  when 
General  Lee  endeavored  to  break  through  our  lines  in 
front  of  Petersburg  and  opened  a  terrific  engagement 
by  the  capture  of  Fort  Stedman,  that  young  Waters 
got  permission  of  our  captain  to  go  to  that  part  of  our 
line,  some  four  miles  to  our  right,  and  that  he  carried 
a  gun  and  fought  on  the  firing  line  until  the  fort  was 
recaptured.  Though  only  fourteen  years  of  age  he  did 
the  service  of  a  grown  soldier  and  was  always  faithful 
and  brave.  No  one  can  doubt  that  he  deserves  well 
at  the  hands  of  a  government  he  so  faithfully  served 
at  that  trying  period." 

His  career  during  the  succeeding  years  will  be  told 
largely  in  the  words  in  which  Mr.  Waters  described  it 
to  the  interviewer,  since  his  own  language  is  more  in- 
esting  than  any  paraphrase  could  be :  "After  leaving 
Ripon  College  I  was  in  the  sewing  machine  business 
for  a  vear.  Made  $2,400  and  spent  $.^,200  and  was  in 
debt  $800  at  the  end  of  the  year.  I  also  bought  cattle 
and  sheep,  froze  them  up  and  shipped  them  to 
northern  Michigan  and  made  money.  Then  I  went  to 
Cheyenne,  Wyoming,  in  1868.  From  a  bed  of  sick- 
ness   (mountain    fever)    I    loaned    my    supposed    friend 


from  my  home  $250,  all  the  money  I  had.  He  imme- 
diately took  the  train  for  Frisco  and  left  me  there 
penniless,  and  I  was  glad  to  pawn  what  I  had  in  order 
to  live  until  I  recovered  my  health  and  strength,  which 
I  did,  and  worked  for  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany building  snow  sheds.  I  made  some  money,  paid 
up  my  debts,  and  in  the  spring  of  1869  with  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  other  men  started  for  the  Big 
Horn  inountains  to  gather  gold  by  the  cartload  at  or 
near  the  Last  Cabin  Claim  if  we  could  find  it.  The 
Indians  were  bad  that  year,  and  they  corralled  the  outfit 
in  the  Wind  River  valley,  where  they  held  our  outfit 
for  some  time  until  the  United  States  government  sent 
troops  who  helped  drive  the  Indians  off.  I  was  shot 
in  the  leg  and  taken  back  to  Cheyenne,  where  I  re- 
mained in  the  hospital  for  some  time.  Finally  the  bul- 
Jet  was  extracted  and  I  returned  to  Fond  du  Lac,  a 
poorer  but  somewhat   wiser  man. 

"Then  I  was  clerk  in  a  hotel  at  Beloit,  Wisconsin,  the 
Goodwin  House,  for  the  very  enticing  salary  of  $16.00 
per  month,  and  came  on  duty  at  9  -.30  A.  M.  and  went 
off  duty  at  3.00  A.  M.,  getting  about  five  or  five  and  a 
half  hours'  sleep  daily.  This  was  while  my  foot  and 
leg  was  getting  well  and  strong  from  the  effects  of 
the  revolver  bullet.  Then  I  secured  a  position  on  the 
Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  which  I  held  for  a  time,  when 
a  letter  from  my  dear  mother  informed  me  of  the  ill- 
ness of  my  stepfather  with  fever  and  urged  me  to  come 
home  and  assist  in  caring  for  him,  which  I  did,  car- 
ing for  him  seven  weeks,  most  of  the  time  night  and 
day,  as  well  as  for  the  other  members  of  the  family, 
who  were  down  with  the  same  fever.  My  stepfather 
died  January  i,  1870,  and  gave  into  my  care  his  only 
living  child,  Adeline  Alsever,  who  was  then  about 
three  and  a  half  years  old,  and  he  asked  me  to  care  for 
and  educate  her,  which  I  did. 

"I  then  went  traveling  on  the  road  for  the  Menasha 
Woodenware  Company,  selling  woodenware.  They 
failed  after  I  had  been  with  them  about  a  year  and 
three  months.  I  then  went  with  a  New  York  tea  house, 
and  finally  became  interested  in  the  company.  For  the 
last  few  years  there  I  made  from  $7,000  to  $9,000 
per  year.  In  1882  I  went  to  Glendive,  Montana,  and 
with  Mr.  Antone  Klaus  (one  of  God's  noblemen)  built 
the  Morrell  House,  a  hotel  that  cost  nearly  $.so,ooo.  I 
bought  out  Mr.  Klaus  in  1884  or  1885.  In  the  mean- 
time I  was  also  in  the  cattle  business  in  the  eastern  part 
of  Dawson  county,  and  my  cattle  and  Roosevelt's  cattle 
were  running  some  of  them  on  the  same  range.  In 
the  spring  of  1885  I  opened  the  Headquarters  Hotel  at 
Billings,  Montana,  and  ran  the  two  hotels  until  the 
fall  of  1885,  when  my  hotel  at  Glendive  burned,  I  los- 
ing $27.t;oo.  In  the  fall  of  1886  I  was  elected  to  rep- 
resent Yellowstone  and  Dawson  counties  in  the  upper 
house  of  the  Montana  legislature,  and  during  that  win- 
ter of  1886-87  we  had  the  hard  winter,  and  I  lost  a 
large  number  of  cattle,  which  meant  the  loss  of  a  large 
amount  of  money.  During  that  same  winter  I  was 
elected  as  department  commander  of  the  Grand  Army 
of   the  Republic  of  Montana." 

In  1887  began  the  phase  of  Mr.  Waters'  career  which 
proved  the  climax  of  his  business  experience  and  brings 
his  life  down  to  the  present  time.  In  1887  he  was 
made  general  manager  of  the  Yellowstone  Park  Associa- 
tion, which  association  controlled  the  hotel  and  trans- 
portation business  in  the  Yellowstone  National  Park,  this 
company  conducting  eight  hotels  in  the  park.  As  gen- 
eral manager  of  this  association  and  eventually  nart 
owner  in  the  transportation  company,  which  he  helped 
organize,  Mr.  Waters  was  closelv  identified  with  the 
entire  business  and  also  put  the  first  steamboat  on  the 
Yellowstone  Lake.  After  several  years  he  gave  up  the 
position  of  general  manager  and  became  president  of 
the  Yellowstone  Lake  Boat  Company,  and  directed  the 
fortunes  of  that  company  until  the  fall  of  1908.  He 
also  owned  one-third  of  the  Wyler  Company  and  as- 
sisted   in    organizing   said    company. 


920 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


In  1907  he  was  offered  $300,000  for  the  property 
and  franchise  of  the  boat  company.  The  privilege  of 
carrying  on  the  business  was  of  course  derived  from 
the  federal  government,  whose  consent  had  to  be  se- 
cured for  a  continuance  of  the  franchise  under  a  new 
lease  at  the  expiration  of  the  old  lease.  Mr.  Waters 
wrote  the  interior  department  and  to  President  Roose- 
velt requesting  permission  to  sell  the  boat  company 
property,  but  never  received  any  reply  to  his  com- 
munication. The  refusal  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  the 
secretary  "of  the  interior  to  give  any  recognition  to 
the  request  of  Mr.  Waters  for  the  transfer  of  the 
franchise  to  the  proposed  purchasers  caused  the  sale 
to  fall  through.  There  was  a  clause  in  the  boat  com- 
pany's lease  about  as  follows :  "At  the  end  of  ten  years, 
if  so  authorized  by  law,  the  secretary  of  the  interior, 
acting  for  the  United  States  government,  may  purchase 
the  property  of  the  Yellowstone  Lake  Boat  Company, 
price  to  be  fixed  by  three  appraisers,  one  chosen  by 
the  government,  one  by  the  boat  company,  and  the 
third  selected  by  the  two  so  chosen.  If  they  do  not 
purchase  the  property  of  the  Yellowstone  Lake  Boat 
Company,  they  will  extend  this  lease  for  a  period  not 
exceeding  ten  years  with  all  the  privileges  in  the  new 
lease  contained  in  the  old  contract."  The  facts  in  the 
case  showed  that  the  administration  refused  either  to 
renew  the  lease  or  fulfill  the  terms  of  the  contract  thus 
stated,  and  ordered  the  company  to  remove  its  prop- 
erty from  the  park.  The  entire  equipment  of  boats, 
docks,  etc.,  at  once  became  so  much  dead  capital.  It 
is  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Waters,  based  upon  a  large 
amount  of  detailed  evidence  that  cannot  be  reported 
here,  that  the  party  seeking  to  get  control  of  the  whole 
of  the  transportation  business  in  the  park  and  standing 
in  the  favor  of  officials  of  the  federal  government, 
used  their  influence  to  discontinue  the  boat  company's 
franchise,  and  thus  forte  a  sale  of  the  property  at  a 
figure  far  below  its  cost  value.  Mr.  Waters  carried 
on  a  futile  fight  for  his  propertv  and  former  franchise 
rights  with  the  officials  of  two  administrations,  but  in 
the  end  was  forced  to  accept  $50,000  for  the  property, 
whose  original  cost  had  been  about  $250,000,  and  for 
which  he  had  once  been  offered  $300,000. 

After  these  disastrous  conclusions  of  the  negotia- 
tions, and  when  the  $50,000  had  been  applied  to  satisfy 
the  boat  company's  creditors,  Mr.  Waters  was  left 
financially  worth  less  than  nothing,  and  had  to  wit- 
ness the  accumulations  of  a  lifetime  swept  away  by 
what  he  considered  a  monumental  act  of  injustice.  He 
says :  "I  was  not  allowed  to  see  any  charges  made 
against  me  or  the  boat  company  under  Roosevelt's  ad- 
ministration, and  not  until  the  Taft  administration 
came  was  I  permitted  to  see  them.  Mr.  Taft  made 
the  statement  in  writing  to  Secretary  Ballinger  (so  I 
was  informed  by  Taft's  personal  friend)  "that  he 
vvanted  him  to  see  that  Mr.  Waters  had  absolute  jus- 
tice," and  at  that  time,  I  believe,  he  meant  what  he  said, 
but  when  he  became  informed  of  the  powerful  com- 
bination against  me  he  stated  to  Mr.  Nicholas  Long- 
worth  (so  Mr.  Waters  was  informed)  "that  $50,000 
was  enough  for  us  to  get  for  our  plant." 

To  those  who  follow  the  remarkable  vicissitudes  of 
Mr.  Waters  in  this  fight,  it  will  be  interesting  to  know 
that  one  of  the  most  eminent  lawyers  and  public  men 
in  America  took  up  the  matter,  unknown  to  Mr. 
Waters,  and  used  his  brilliant  ability  in  an  endeavor 
to  secure  what  he  believed  was  but  simple  justice  for 
this  old  Montana  veteran.  The  lawyer  in  question  was 
Congressman  W.  Bourke  Cochran  of  New  York  City. 
Mr.  Cochran  made  a  thorough  study  of  all  the  docu- 
ments and  evidences  in  the  case,  and  wrote  two  letters 
to  the  then  president,  Mr.  Roosevelt.  These  letters 
are  of  course  too  long  to  be  included  or  quoted  suffi- 
ciently to  indicate  the  trend  of  the  argument,  but  the 
following  random  paragraphs  are  inserted  without  fur- 
ther comment.    The  first  reads :  "Your  love  of  a  square 


deal,"  Mr.  Cochran  thus  opened  his  letter  to  the  presi- 
dent, "which  I  have  appreciated  for  nearly  a  genera- 
tion and  which  the  whole  world  has  learned  to  admire 
during  the  last  decade,  encourages  me  to  bring  before 
you  what  I  regard  as  a  grave  injustice  perpetrated — at 
least  contemplated — by  the  government  through  its 
Interior  Department  against  a  deserving  man  and  vet- 
eran of  the  Civil  war."  Then  in  a  subsequent  letter 
appears  the  following :  "All  the  testimony  shows  that 
the  transportation  company  and  the  officers  of  the 
United  States  army  concurred  in  wishing  to  drive  him 
(Mr.  Waters)  from  the  park.  Whether  their  atti- 
tude in  this  respect  was  just  or  unjust,  it  is  undeniable 
that  for  a  long  time  he  has  stood  alone,  weak,  poor 
and  aged,  defending  his  possessions  and  his  prospects 
against  what  he  concedes  to  be  a  combination  of  hos- 
tility among  army  officers  and  greed  of  the  transpor- 
tation company.  Where  a  man  is  condemned  by  the 
unanimous  or  overwhelming  sentiments  of  his  own 
neighborhood,  I  am  always  ready  to  accept  the  judg- 
ment of  the  community  as  infallible.  But  Waters  is 
the  object  of  sympathy,  not  condemnation,  by  his  own 
neighborhood.  The  men  who  dislike  him  and  con- 
demn him  are  not  permanent,  but  temporary,  residents 
of  the  park.  Humbler  folks  who  live  and  labor  there, 
drivers  of  stages,  subordinate  porters  of  hotels,  hos- 
tlers and  hall-boys  were  unanimous,  so  far  as  I  could 
discover,  in  expressing  sympathy  for  Waters.  Cap- 
tain Waters  says :  That  it  was  publicly  stated  that 
Major  Pitcher,  superintendent  of  the  park,  or  his  wife, 
was  interested  in  the  hotel  or  transportation  company 
or  both.     Thus,  his  hostility  to  the  boat  company." 

Mr.  Cochran  further  says :  "This  attitude  of  dislike 
apparently  was  passed  on  to  his  successors,  each  of 
whom  seems  to  have  regarded  it  as  a  feature  of  duty 
of  his  position. 

"Thus,  under  date  of  August  16,  1909,  Captain  Pitcher, 
acting  superintendent  of  the  park,  in  an  indorse- 
ment says  of  certain  statements  to  Captain  Waters, 
referred  to  him  by  the  Interior  Department,  T  will 
simply  say  that  they  are  absolutely  false,  and  Mr. 
Waters  knew  they  were  false  when  he  made  them.' 
(See  Ex.  J.) 

"Captain  Waters  says  he  can  prove  the  truth  of  any 
statement  he  ever  made  to  the  department  or  any 
superintendent  of  the  park  that  Pitcher  is  not  sup- 
ported by  all  his  predecessors  in  his  statement.  I 
think  he  is  not  supported  by  any  of  them. 
"On  October  5,  1904,  the  same  officer  wrote : 
"  T  believe  I  have  recommended  to  the  department 
that  the  Yellowstone  Park  Transportation  Company 
be  required  to  put  a  steamboat  on  the  lake,  to  be  run 
in  connection  with  their  stages.  I  now  strongly  repeat 
this  recommendation,  as  this  is  the  simplest  means  by 
which  the  department  can  rid  itself  of  Mr.  Waters  and 
his  boat  company.' 

"June  6,  1903,  he  again  recommends  that  competition 
be  allowed  in  the  boat  service  for  the  express  purpose 
of   driving   Waters    from   the   park.     (See   Ex.    i.) 

"On  August  18,  1902,  Major  Pitcher  addressed  a  letter 
to  Waters  formally  prohibiting  him  from  asking  any 
person  to  take  passage  on  his  vessel,  in  these  terms : 

"  'You  are  hereby  directed  to  henceforth  wholly  desist 
from  soliciting  any  patronage  or  in  any  manner  pre- 
senting your  business  to  any  tourists  upon  the  grounds 
or  within  the  tents  or  buildings  of  the  Yellowstone 
Park  Association  at  the  Thumb  Station,  or  the  Lake 
Hotel'     (See  Ex.  J.) 

"As  the  Lake  Hotel  and  the  Thumb  Station  are  the 
terminals  of  the  boat  service  and  therefore  the  only 
place  at  which  Waters  could  secure  any  passengers,  this 
order  in  effect  was  a  direction  that  he  abandon  his  busi- 
ness. Unless  he  accosted  passengers  personally,  they 
would  never  be  likely  to  hear  of  his  service,  or  to 
know  that  a  passage  on  the  lake  by  boat  was  open  to 
them. 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


921 


"As  you  are  doubtless  aware,  nearly  every  visitor  to 
the  park  travels  on  a  single  ticket  embracing  several 
coupons  covering  transportation  between  the  different 
points  of  interest,  together  with  hotel  accommodation 
at  the  different  stopping  places.  On  none  of  these 
tickets  is  there  any  mention  of  the  lake  trip  by  way  of 
Waters'  boat.  Passengers  are  never  likely  to  learn  of 
it,  unless  some  agent  of  the  steamboat  meets  them  at 
Thumb  and  urges  them  to  purchase  tickets.  I  speak 
from  personal  knowledge.  My  own  party  would  never 
have  crossed  the  lake  by  boat — and  the  very  best  feat- 
ure of  our  trip  to  Yellowstone  Park  would  have  been 
missed  completely — if  it  had  not  been  for  the  personal 
meeting  with  Captain  Waters. 

"Under  Major  Pitcher's  order,  therefore.  Captain 
Waters  must  either  sacrifice  his  business  by  refraining 
from  doing  the  one  thing  through  which  it  could  be 
kept  alive,  or  it  would  be  destroyed  forcibly  by  his 
ejection  from  the  park.  Is  it  extraordinary  that  such 
an  order  should  have  been  interpreted  by  Captain 
Waters  as  an  attempt  to  paralyze  his  business,  with  a 
view  of  having  it  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  transporta- 
tion company?  Very  likely  he  indulged  in  strong- 
language  and  possibly  he  may  have  sought  a  motive 
for  what  he  conceived  to  be  persecution  in  some  as- 
sumed understanding  between  the  author  of  this  notice 
and  the  corporation  which  would  be  enriched  by  the 
ruin  which  its  enforcement  must  produce.  This  may 
all   be  a   source  of   regret,  but  not   of  surprise. 

"Moreover,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Waters,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  not  the  only  one  among  these  war- 
ring elements  to  use  heated  or  intemperate  words. 
Whatever  Waters  may  have  been  tempted  to  say  or 
do  under  what  he  believed  to  be  great  provocation,  he 
could  scarcely  have  exceeded  the  vehemence  of  ex- 
pression which  characterizes  the  language  of  army 
officers  with  respect  to  him,  or  the  violence  of  Major 
Pitcher's  course,  at  least   in   one   respect. 

"When  I  met  Captain  Waters  in  the  Yellowstone,  be- 
sides many  stories  of  ill  usage  which  I  considered 
plausible,  he  told  me  one  which  I  rejected  as  utterly 
improbable.  I  attributed  it  to  misconstruction  or  ex- 
aggeration of  some  neglect,  real  or  fancied,  on  the  party 
of  employes  to  give  him  at  the  hotel  the  service  or 
attention  he  believed  to  be  his  due.  He  charged  that 
the  Yellowstone  company  in  their  warfare  upon  him, 
had  actually  refused  to  receive  him  or  the  members 
of  his  family  at  their  hotels  and  this  refusal  had  been 
approved  by  Major  Pitcher.  Not  until  these  papers 
reached  my  hands  and  I  found  his  statement  confirmed 
in  writing  over  Major  Pitcher's  own  signature,  could 
I  realize  that  such  a  violation  of  elementary  rights 
had  been  suffered  by  any  citizen  at  the  hands  of  an 
officer  wearing  the  uniform  of  this  government.  (See 
endorsement  on  paper  dated  June  9,  1905 — Ex.  K.)  T 
lliink  you  will  agree  that  had  Captain  Waters  been  a 
discharged  convict,  this  order  excluding  him  from  the 
right  to  be  entertained  at  a  hotel  built  upon  public  land 
and  established  under  license  of  the  government  for 
the  express  purpose  of  accommodating  every  citizen 
willing  to  pay  the  regular  charges  (especiallv  so  far 
as  it  affected  his  guests  or  the  members  of  his  f^jmily) 
would  have  been  without  warrant,  justification  or 
excuse. 

"Even  if  we  assume  every  conclusion  of  fact  which 
General  Young  has  reached  to  be  absolutely  correct, 
the  severity  of  the  punishment  he  recommends  is  all" 
out  oi  proportion  to  the  gravity  of  the  delinquencies 
he  imputes  to  Captain  Waters.  If  everything  he  al- 
leges be  taken  as  absolutely  true,  such  grievious 
penalties  as  must  follow  the  adoption  of  his  recom- 
mendation  would  be  excessive  and  therefore   unjust. 

"Conceive  for  a  moment  what  this  would  involve. 
Waters'_  entire  capital  Cincluding  all  the  resources  of 
his  family)  has  been  invested  in  boats  and  other  prop- 
erty   operating   the    lake    transportation    service    which 


the  government  authorized  him  to  establish.  One  large 
steam  vessel,  which  I  saw  myself,  was  built  last  year. 
Considering  the  service  it  is  expected  to  render,  it  is 
commodious  and  well  appointed.  Evidently  it  has  been 
constructed  in  the  hope  of  increasing  traffic  by  enlarg- 
ing the  accommodation  for  passengers  and  promoting 
their  comfort.  Boats  built  expressly  for  service  on 
the  lake  would  be  of  little  value  anywhere  else.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  they  would  realize  on  forced  sale 
enough  to  pay  the  cost  of  transportation  to  another 
locality.  During  the  long  period  in  which  he  has 
operated  this  service  he  has  established  a  business 
which  must  be  of  some  value  or  he  would  not  be  so 
desperately  anxious  to  retain  it.  To  the  good  will  of 
this,  whatever  it  may  be  worth,  he  is  undeniably  en- 
titled in  sound  morals,  if  not  in  the  strict  letter  of 
the  law.  All  these  his  summary  expulsion  from  the 
park  would  destroy  at  one  blow.  His  ruin  would  be 
complete  and  it  would  probably  be  irrevocable.  For 
he  is  an  old  man,  and  with  such  a  cloud  on  his  char- 
acter as  expulsion  under  such  conditions  must  cast, 
repair  of  his  fortunes  would  be  practically  impossible. 
The  ruin  of  all  his  prospects  as  well  as  of  his  whole 
possessions  is  therefore  the  punishment  you  are  ad- 
vised to  inflict  on  him.  Surely  nothing  but  offenses 
of  the  very  gravest  character  could  justify  a  penalty 
so  severe. 

"One  thing  is  perfectly  certain,  IMr.  President,  if 
Waters  be  expelled  from  the  park  somebody  else  would 
be  given  the  right  to  operate  boats  on  the  lake.  The 
public  cannot  be  excluded  permanently  from  the  right 
to  traverse  this  magnificent  sheet  of  water.  Can  you 
or  anybody  else  doubt  that  the  transportation  com- 
pany will  become  the  beneficiary  of  the  decree  that 
ruins  Waters,  should  an  order  for  his  expulsion  be 
issued?" 

Mr.  Cochran  concluded  this  long  second  communica- 
tion with  these  words :  "I  should  not  have  felt  inclined 
to  undertake  this  labor  and  inflict  such  a  lengthy  com- 
munication on  you,  were  it  not  for  my  humble  but 
very  firm  conviction  that  the  course  I  suggest  is  more 
consistent  with  that  impartial  and  unliending  justice 
of  which  the  American  people  believe  you  to  be  the 
very   embodiment." 

For  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  while  active  head 
of  the  Yellowstone  Lake  Boat  Company's  affairs,  Mr. 
Waters  continued  in  the  live-stock  business.  At  one 
time  he  was  running  twelve  thousand  head  of  sheep 
and  for  twelve  or  fifteen  years  has  been  raising  horses, 
cattle  and  mules.  His  enterprise  in  the  stock  business 
has  of  course  varied  with  different  seasons  and  periods, 
but  he  has  been  practically  identified  with  this  industry 
during  the  most  of  his  years  of  residence  in  Montana. 
He  was  also  in  the  mining  business  in  Cook  City  and 
Bear  Creek,  and  was  president  of  the  Pacific  Launch 
Company  of  Tacoma,  Washington,  whose  plant  was 
wrecked  by  a  cloudburst  that  caused  the  Puyallup  river 
to  rise  so  rapidly  that  a  large  portion  of  the  plant  was 
carried  into  the  bay  and  the  company  became  bank- 
rupt. 

A  short  time  before  the  Boer  war  in  South  Africa 
Mr.  Waters  organized  the  American  Land  &  Sheep 
Company  under  the  contract  with  an  English  syndicate 
who  agreed  to  furnish  ten  million  dollars  for  purchase 
of  all  tiie  land  lying  along  the  streams  in  middle  and 
eastern  Montana,  together  with  the  water-right  con- 
trolled by  these  lands.  The  agreement  also  included 
the  purchase  by  Mr.  Waters  of  all  the  sheep  which  he 
could  obtain.  With  such  a  plan  in  mind  Mr.  Waters 
put  out  two  men  in  the  field  getting  options  on  land, 
and  thus  secured  options  on  property  worth  seven 
million  dollars.  No  one  then  knew  who  were  the  real 
parties  in_  the  American  Land  &  Sheep  Company.  As 
a  result,  in  a  short  time,  he  obtained  a  large  number 
of  sheep  at  a  little  more  than  two  dollars  per  head, 
and    the    best    land    in    Montana    at    seventeen    dollars 


922 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


and  a  half  an  acre,  including  the  first  and  best  water- 
right.  Then  the  whole  deal  was  brought  to  an  abrupt 
conclusion.  The  Boer  war  made  money  so  tight  in 
England  that  the  syndicate  was  unable  to  control  the 
funds  which  they  had  promised,  and  Mr.  Waters  is 
still  in  the  courts  with  a  litigation,  endeavoring  to 
obtain  satisfactory  remuneration  for  the  damages  to 
which  he  was  put  by  carrying  out  his  part  of  the 
contract. 

Mr.  Waters  was  formerly  an  active  member  of  the 
Masons  and  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  the  Elks,  the 
Grand  Army,  and  the  Traveling  Men's  Association. 
Up  to  1910  he  was  a  Republican  in  politics,  but  at 
that  time  he  became  convinced  that  the  party  was 
largely  under  the  control  of  its  more  corrupt  and 
powerful  members  and  therefore  left  its  ranks.  As  to 
religion  his  ancestors  were  most  of  them  Universalists, 
and  that  faith   has   his   own   preference. 

At  Fond  du  Lac,  Wisconsin,  March  4,  1878,  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Martha  Bustus  Amory.  Her  grand- 
father left  a  will  which  granted  certain  tracts  of  land 
in  New  York  City  to  his  heirs,  this  land  to  come  into 
their  possession  when  tlie  youngest  grandchild  was 
of  age.  This  grandchild  was  Mrs.  Waters'  youngest 
brother.  The  immediate  heirs  contested  and  broke  the 
will,  and  but  for  this  the  property  at  this  time  would 
have  been  worth  $1,500,000,000.  The  children  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Waters  were  as  follows :  Edna  Albcrti. 
Anna  Amory,  and  Amory  Oakes.  The  daughter. 
Edna,  married  A.  F.  Molina,  and  had  one  child,  Amory 
Waters  Molina.  Mrs.  Molina  died  January  15,  1913. 
Amory  Oakes  Waters  married  Miss  Minnie  Lee,  and 
has  one  child,  Martha  Bustus  Waters,  named  for  her 
grandmother,  Anna  Amory  Waters,  the  youngest 
daughter  died  January  6.  1905.  ]\Irs.  Waters,  whose 
death  occurred  August  6,  igog,  was  a  woman  of  splen- 
did education,  a  great  reader  and  fine  musician,  and 
besides  caring  for  her  home  and  rearing  her  children 
was  a  delightful  friend  and  companion  and  was  a 
favorite   in   all    social   circles. 

William  S.  Erwin.  The  visitor  to  the  Gallatin  val- 
ley, viewing  for  the  first  time  its  fertile  fields,  well- 
regulated  farms  and  general  air  of  prosperity,  finds  it 
difficult  to  believe  that  but  comparatively  a  few  years 
ago  this  section  of  the  country  was  a  wild  waste  of 
prairie  and  desert  land,  uncultivated  and  unprofitable. 
Such  is  the  case,  however,  and  the  wonderful  change 
that  has  been  brought  about  is  the  direct  result  of  years 
of  persi.stent,  untiring  labor  on  the  part  of  men  of 
energy,  industry,  perseverance  and  ability,  the  greater 
part  of  whose  lives  have  been  devoted  to  developing 
their  community's  interests  while  achieving  personal 
success.  Prominent  among  this  class  stands  William 
S.  Erwin,  who  for  many  years  carried  on  agricultural 
pursuits  in  Gallatin  county,  but  who  is  now  retired  from 
active  pursuits  and  Hving  quietly  in  the  city  of  Boze- 
man,  where  he  has  a  comfortable  modern  residence  at 
No.  624  West  Olive  street.  Mr.  Erwin  was  born  in 
Schuyler  county,  Illinois,  on  his  father's  farm,  ^lay  21, 
1864,  and  is  a  son  of  George  W.  and  Agnes  E.  (Cor- 
rie)   Erwin. 

George  W.  Erwin  was  born  in  Plattsburg,  Steuben 
county,  New  York,  in  1818,  and  received  his  education 
in  the  public  schools  of  that  locality.  On  attaining 
his  majority  he  removed  to  Schuyler  county,  Illinors, 
in  which  locality  he  was  a  pioneer,  and  for  some  time 
was  engaged  in  driving  the  stage  coach,  his  wages  being 
nine  dollars  per  month,  a  part  of  which  were  paid  in 
merchandise.  Subsequently  he  entered  government 
land,  which  he  first  devoted  to  the  raising  of  corn  and 
later  gave  over  to  general  farming  and  stock  raising, 
and  became  one  of  the  best-known  raisers  of  Clydes- 
dale horses  and  full-blooded  cattle  in  his  county.  He 
served  as  a  soldier  during  the  Mexican  war,  was  a 
stanch  Democrat  in  his  political  views,  and  was  a  rec- 


ognized authority  on  matters  agricultural  by  his  fellow 
members  in  the  grange.  His  death  occurred  in  1894, 
his  wife  having  passed  away  in  1885,  when  fifty-six 
years  of  age.  Of  their  seven  children,  four  are  still 
living:  Ellen  A.,  the  wife  of  Richard  Bosworth ;  Cor- 
nelius M.,  Frank  C.  and  William  S. 

The  early  education  of  William  S.  Erwin  was  se- 
cured in  the  pul)lic  schools  of  Schuyler  county,  and  he 
later  attended  Chaddock  College,  Quincy,  Illinois,  and 
the  Indiana  State  Normal  school,  now  the  Indiana  State 
University,  at  Valparaiso.  Mr.  Erwin's  advent  in  the 
Gallatin  valley  was  in  December,  1885,  and  on  first  ar- 
riving he  secured  employment  as  a  farm  hand.  As  his 
father  had  done  before  him,  Mr.  Erwin  next  entered 
government  land  and  engaged  in  raising  wheat,  barley 
and  oats.  He  continued  in  business  until  1911,  on  Janu- 
ary 1st  of  which  year  he  came  to  Bozeman  in  order 
that  his  children  might  secure  better  educational  ad- 
vantages. Mr.  Erwin  is  a  Democrat  in  politics,  and  in 
1907  was  elected  a  county  commissioner  of  Gallatin 
county,  for  a  term  of  four  years.  Fraternally,  he  is 
connected  with  Bozeman  Lodge  No.  463,  B.  P.  O.  E., 
aild  Bridger  Camp  No.  62,  W.  O.  W.  During  the  many 
years  of  his  residence  in  this  section  he  has  made 
numerous  acquaintances,  and  his  friends  here  are  legion. 
All  movements  for  the  betterment  of  the  locality  have 
his  hearty  support,  and  he  has  always  shown  himself 
to  be  a  friend  of  education,  morality  and  good  citizen- 
ship. 

On  April  19,  1894,  Mr.  Erwin  was  married  to  Miss 
Maisie  M.  Kent,  who  was  born  in  Gallatin  county, 
daughter  of  James  and  Martha  (Hopkins)  Kent,  the 
former  of  whom  died  in  1886,  while  the  latter  still 
lives.  Mrs.  Erwin  is  the  oldest  of  a  family  of  six 
children.  Her  father  came  to  the  west  with  his  parents 
from  Pennsylvania,  and  his  boyhood  days  were  spent  in 
^Missouri.  In  1864  he  traveled  overland  to  Montana, 
locating  near  Old  Hamilton,  where  he  engaged  in  stock 
raising  and  farming,  and  later  removed  to  near  Cot- 
tonwood creek,  this  being  his  location  at  the  time 
of  his  death.  Four  children  have  been  born  to  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Erwin,  namely :  James  Kent,  Mae  Agnes, 
Lewis  George  and  William  Howard. 

Charles  E.  Carlson.  Among  the  young  legal  lights 
of  whom  Montana  and  Gallatin  county  have  every  rea- 
son to  be  proud  is  Charles  E.  Carlson.  He  possesses  a 
splendid  legal  mind,  quickly  getting  at  the  very  heart 
of  a  question,  discovering  the  underlying  principles  of 
law,  and  stating  his  conclusions  in  clear,  terse  English. 
In  the  few  years  since  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  has 
been  identified  with  a  good  deal  of  important  litigation. 
Mr.  Carlson  is  one  of  those  valiant  characters  who  have 
triumphed  over  adverse  conditions  and  pressed  forward 
to  the  goal  of  success.  He  is  in  the  most  significant 
sense  self-made  and  integrity  and  honor  characterize 
him  in  the  relations  of  life. 

Mr.  Carlson  was  born  at  Albert  Lea,  Minnesota,  May 
3,  1885,  and  there  resided  until  about  four  years  of  age, 
when,  with  his  parents,  he  removed  to  Independence, 
Iowa.  He  remained  in  that  place  for  about  six  years, 
and  the  family  went  to  Britt,  Iowa,  where  they  lived 
for  a  year.  Following  that  they  located  in  Humboldt  of 
the  Hawkeye  state,  where  they  lived  eight  years.  It 
was  in  Humboldt  that  his  father  died  and  though  a  boy 
in  years  he  found  it  necessary  to  face  the  world  like  a 
man.  His  father.  Rev.  Adolph  Carlson,  was  a  Baptist 
minister,  and  a  native  of  Denmark.  He  severed  home 
associations  and  came  to  America  when  a  youth  of  nine- 
teen and  like  so  many  of  his  countrymen,  located  first 
in  the  state  of  Minnesota.  He  died  in  1903,  at  the  age 
of  sixty-five  years  and  is  interred  in  that  place.  His 
wife's  maiden  name  was  Dorothy  Anderson,  and  they 
were  united  in  marriage  in  the  state  of  Wisconsin.  She 
died  in  1887,  when  the  subject  was  an  infant,  and  is 
buried  in  Albert  Lea.     There  were  nine  children  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


923 


elder  Carlson  family,  Ihc  subject  being  the  youngest  in 
order  of  birth. 

Mr.  Carlson  graduated  from  the  tlumboldt  high 
school  and  then  matr-ciilated  in  the  University  of  Min- 
nesota at  Minneapolis,  where  he  pursued  a  four-year 
course  in  science,  literature  and  arts,  being  graduated 
from  that  department  and  receiving  his  degree.  He 
had  an  ambition  to  become  a  lawyer  and  took  the  neces- 
sary preparation  in  the  same  university.  He  worked 
his  own  way  through  college  and  as  is  usual  in  such 
circumstances,  made  the  most  of  his  hard-earned  oppor- 
tunities. He  had  earned  his  first  money  doing  chores 
for  a  doctor  in  Humboldt.  He  is  also  familiar  with  the 
life  of  a  commercial  traveler,  for  he  engaged  as  such 
for  a  twelvemonth,  and  he  followed  various  other  occu- 
pations previous  to  entering  the  university. 

After  leaving  college  Mr.  Carlson  studied  in  the  office 
of  the  firm  of  Dunn  &  Carlson  at  Albert  Lea,  Minne- 
sota, and  remained  in  this  association  for  nearly  one 
year.  In  April,  191 1,  he  came  to  Three  Forks,  Gallatin 
county,  where  he  hung  out  his  professional  shingle  and 
here  he  has  encountered  the  best  of  fortunes,  in  the 
short  time  intervening  since  his  arrival  having  won  the 
confidence  of  the  community.  He  has  a  most  com- 
modious and  pleasant  office  and  an  unusually  compre- 
hensive law  library,  whose  volumes  have  been  collected 
for  the  most  part  since  he  came  here.  In  addition  to 
his  ability  in  the  profession  to  which  he  has  already 
proven  an  ornament,  Mr.  Carlson  is  a  gifted  orator,  con- 
vincing, forceful  and  eloquent,  and  he  is  in  great  de- 
mand upon  occasions  where  eloquence  is  in  order.  At 
the  recent  Democratic  convention  he  was  selected  to 
make  the  speech  of  nomination.  He  is  a  Democrat  and 
is  greatly  interested  in  matters  political,  his  striking 
personality  making  him  an  influential  factor  in  public 
life.  He  has  plenty  of  fighting  blood  and  his  support 
is  an  element  greatly  to  be  desired. 

He  is  enthusiastic  over  outdoor  life  and  amusements, 
and  of  fishing  in  particular.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
Baptist  church.  In  college  he  belonged  to  the  Greek 
letter  fraternity.  Delta  Sigma  Rho,  this  being  an 
honorary  fraternity  to  which  are  eligible  all  students  in 
accredited  colleges  who  have  taken  part  in  intelcollegiate 
forensic  contests.  While  in  the  University  of  Minne- 
sota he  took  part  in  the  contest  with  Wisconsin  and 
won.  Apropos  of  Montana,  Mr.  Carlson  says :  "I  am 
here  to  stay ;  that  expresses  my  view  of  the  state.  I 
have  realized  its  possibilities  and  am  fully  convinced 
that  this  is  the  coming  country."  Mr.  Carlson  was 
married  at  Humboldt,  Iowa,  October  5,  1912,  to  Miss 
Carrie  Mason. 

Charles  J.  Carlson.  One  of  the  leading  contractors 
of  Helena  is  Mr.  Charles  Carlson,  who  is  known  not 
only  as  a  contractor,  but  who  has  a  reputation  as  a 
designer,  his  designs  being  sought  after  because  of 
their  good  taste  and  their  excellent  arrangement.  Mr. 
Carlson  was  born  in  Sweden,  on  March  2-/,  1875.  His 
father,  Charles  Gustafson,  had  died  the  month  pre- 
ceding his  birth,  and  although  his  mother,  Clara,  nee 
Nordling,  remarried,  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  Charles  and 
his  older  brother.  Gust  A.  Carlson,  to  begin  early  to 
take  care  of  themselves.  Mr.  Gustafson  had  been  a 
stone  mason  and  after  his  death  his  widow  became  the 
wife  of  P.  R.  Berquist,  to  whom  she  bore  two  sons 
and  two  daughters.  They  are  all  still  residents  of 
Sweden. 

Until  he  was  fifteen  years  old  Charles  attended 
school  in  Sweden,  and  then  as  his  older  brother  was 
coming  to  America,  he  accompanied  him.  They 
stopped  first  in  Marshfield,  Wisconsin,  and  Charles 
stayed  a  year  and  a  half  before  going  to  Rockford, 
Illinois.  In  Wisconsin  he  had  worked  at  the  trade  of 
cabinet  making,  and  he  supported  himself  by  this  means 
in  Rockford  until  the  panic  of  the  early  '90s  stopped 
the  mills  and  factories  and  cut  ofif  his  source  of  income. 
He  was  completely  out  of  funds  before  he  found  work. 


and  he  was  obliged  to  walk  to  Harvard,  Illinois,  a 
distance  of  forty  miles,  to  secure  a  chance  to  work.  A 
kindly  conductor  in  Rockford  gave  him  a  ride  to  Mad- 
ison, Wisconsin,  and  there  he  found  work  on  a  ranch 
five  miles  out  of  the  city.  The  farm  was  owned  by  a 
Mr.  McCoy,  and  Mr.  Carlson  remained  in  his  employ 
for  two  years.  During  this  time  he  saved  his  wages, 
and  with  a  little  capital  in  hand  he  felt  he  might  ven- 
ture to  take  up  some  work  for  which  he  was  better 
fitted,  and  which  might  be  more  profitable. 

With  this  idea  in  mind  he  went  to  Madison  and 
worked  at  the  carpenter  trade  for  two  years,  after 
which  he  secured  employment  with  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  Railroad.  He  built  tanks  and  stations 
for  them,  but  after  a  year  and  a  half  he  resigned  from 
his  position  with  the  railroad  and  went  to  Necedah, 
Wisconsin,  to  work  independently  at  carpentry  and 
contracting.  It  was  in  this  town  that  he  met  and  mar- 
ried the  lady  who  has  been  such  an  inspiration  to  him, 
and  who  has  shared  in  the  success  which  his  un- 
flagging courage  and  persistence  have  won  for  him. 
She  was  born  in  Wisconsin,  and  her  maiden  name  was 
Clemmy  Miller.  The  eldest  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Carlson's 
children  died  in  infancy,  and  two  boys,  Aaron  and 
W^ilfred.  besides  one  daughter,  Alta  May,  now  con- 
stitute the  Carlson  family.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Carlson  were 
married  on  March  2,  1900,  about  a  year  before  coming 
to    Helena. 

The  first  contract  which  Mr.  Carlson  took  in  Ne- 
cedah was  that  of  building  a  barn  for  a  prominent 
farmer  of  that  city,  and  as  the  building  was  a  large 
one  he  made  quite  a  neat  little  profit  on  the  job.  This 
brought  him  other  orders,  and  for  several  years  he  was 
kept  busy  around  Necedah.  Later  he  purchased  a 
three  hundred  and  sixty  acre  farm  adjoining  the  place 
on  which  he  had  Iniilt  his  first  barn.  When  Mr.  Carl- 
son first  arrived  in  Helena  he  worked  for  the  firm  of 
Schaefifer  &  Moncrief,  remaining  with  them  for  nearly 
a  year.  He  left  them  to  go  into  contracting  for  him- 
self, and  though  he  began  in  a  small  way  his  business 
steadily  increased.  Except  for  one  year  during  which 
he  was  associated  with  James  Black,  under  the  firm 
name  Black  &  Carlson,  he  has  been  alone.  This  asso- 
ciation was  formed  in  1909. 

Mr.  Carlson  has  erected  a  large  number  of  the  fine 
modern  dwellings  in  Helena,  and  most  of  these  from 
designs  of  his  ow'n.  Soon  after  coming  to  .America  he 
took  a  course  in  architecture  in  the  International  Cor- 
respondence School.  He  was  one  of  the  school's  best 
DUpils.  The  business  which  he  has  built  up  in  Helena 
is  one  of  the  largest  of  the  kind  in  the  city,  and  it  has 
been  a  paying  one.  He  owns  the  building  at  No.  16 
South  Park  street,  and  has  recently  purchased  other 
property  on  that  street,  which  became  necessary  for 
tlie  rapidly  growing  business. 

Having  something  of  a  taste  for  military  pursuits, 
Mr.  Carlson  belongs  to  the  Montana  National  Guards, 
and  is  a  corporal  in  comoany  G.  He  is  affiliated  with 
the  Woodmen  of  the  World,  with  the  Roval  High- 
landers, the  Order  of  Moose,  and  with  the  Eagles,  be- 
sides being  a  prominent  member  of  the  Carpenters' 
Union.  In  politics  he  is  an  independent  voter,  and  so 
considers  only  the  fitness  of  the  candidate  for  the  of- 
fice, with  no  reference  to  his  political  party.  Mr.  Carl- 
son himself  has  never  been  at  all  attracted  to  public 
life.  He  has  taken  his  course  in  the  school  of  ad- 
versity, and  in  all  that  hard  training  did  not  fail  in 
courage  nor  falter  in  efifort.  As  a  reward,  he  has  at- 
tained a  comfortable  little  fortune  before  he  has 
reached  middle  life,  and  with  an  admirable  profes- 
sional record  as  a  designer,  as  well  as  success  as  a 
contractor,  he  hns  still  before  him  a  long  career  of  use- 
fulness and  profit.  The  brother  who  accompanied  him 
to  .'\ineric3  is  now  a  farmer  in  McMillan,  Wisconsin, 
and  so  both  the  boys  who  came  to  the  country  less 
than  a  ouarter  of  a  centurv  ago  have  made  a  place  in 
it   for  themselves.     There   is   alwavs  room   everywhere 


924 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


for  such  men  of  enterprise  and  capability.  They  are 
needed  in  America,  especially  in  the  northwest,  for 
whose  development  tliey  have  done  so  much,  and  which 
in  turn  has  been  so  generous  to  them. 

Hon.  Cornelius  Hedges.  In  considering  the  repre- 
sentative and  constructive  men  of  the  state  of  Montana 
the  name  of  the  late  Judge  Cornelius  Hedges  comes  im- 
mediately to  mind,  for  he  impressed  himself  indelibly  on 
his  generation  through  his  sturdy  integrity,  his  manly 
virtue,  the  force  of  his  natural  powers  of  judgment  and 
his  unselfish  labors  in  the  cause  of  patriotism  and  prog- 
ress. Judge  Hedges  was  born  at  Westfield,  Massachu- 
setts, October  28,  1831,  and  died  at  Helena,  Montana, 
April  29,  1907,  in  his  seventy-sixth  year.  His  parents 
were  Dennis  and  Alvena  (Noble)    Hedges. 

Judge  Hedges  could  lay  claim  to  a  more  or  less  illus- 
trious ancestry,  his  forefathers  having  been  among  the 
earliest  settlers  on  Long  Island,  removing  from  there 
to  Connecticut  and  before  his  time  to  Massachusetts. 
His  maternal  grandfather,  Jacob  Noble,  served  under 
General  Washington  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  and 
was  the  progenitor  of  a  long  line  of  honest  farming 
people  and  strong  supporters  of  the  Congregational 
church.  While  the  Nobles  were  of  English  extraction, 
it  is  possible  that  the  Hedges  came  originally  from 
Ireland.  His  father,  Dennis  Hedges,  owned  a  small 
farm  and  also  conducted  a  blacksmith  business  in  the 
vicinity  of  Westfield,  Massachusetts,  where  he  lived  into 
respected  old  age,  and  when  he  and  wife  celebrated 
their  golden  wedding  the  occasion  was  made  notable  for 
them  by  the  attendance  of  their  only  son,  Cornelius, 
who  had  already  become  a  citizen  of  great  prominence 
in  the  far  west.  This  pilgrimage  to  his  old  home  was 
one  of  affection  and  sentiment  and  was  referred  to  by 
Judge  Hedges  many  times  during  his  after  life. 

In  the  local  schools  and  academies  Cornelius  Hedges 
prepared  for  Yale  College,  from  which  he  was  gradu- 
ated in  1853.  During  the  three  succeeding  years  he 
taught  school  and  in  the  meanwhile  studied  his  law 
books  and  in  1855  was  graduated  from  the  law  depart- 
ment of  Harvard  College  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  Massachusetts.  Leaving  New  England,  he  located  at 
Independence,  Iowa,  where  he  opened  a  law  office  and 
remained  until  1864,  during  a  portion  of  which  period 
he  was  concerned  in  a  newspaper  enterprise  and  was 
publisher  and  editor  of  the  Independent  Civilian. 

Young,  ambitious  and  enterprising,  it  is  not  remark- 
able that  Cornelius  Hedges  became  interested  in  the 
wonderful  developing  changes  that  were  taking  place  in 
the  western  country  about  that  time,  and  in  the  spring 
of  1864  joined  a  party  and  crossed  the  plains  to  Virginia 
City,  Montana,  later  coming  on  to  Helena,  which  city 
continued  to  be  his  chosen  home  throughout  the  rest  of 
an  unusually  active  and  useful  life.  While  faithful  to 
every  local  interest,  his  subsequent  activities  covered  the 
state,  and  in  the  great  development  which  followed  he 
was  a  very  prominent  factor.  In  1871  he  was  appointed 
United  States  district  attorney  and  from  1875  until  1880 
he  was  probate  judge  of  Lewis  and  Clarke  county. 
Judge  Hedges  was  probably  the  original  mover  that  re- 
sulted in  the  establishing  of  the  Helena  Public  Library, 
was  one  of  the  directors  who  secured  as  a  beginning-  a 
room,  in  the  fall  of  1868,  on  the  present  site  of  the 
International  Hotel.  His  constant  interest  in  educa- 
tional progress  brought  about  his  appointment  in  1872, 
by  Governor  Benjamin  F.  Potts,  as  first  territorial 
superintendent  of  the  public  schools,  and  in  his  devo- 
tion to  duties  pertaining  to  this  position  Judge  Hedges 
traveled  hundreds  of  miles,  under  trying  circumstances, 
to  gather  the  few  teachers  then  in  the  territory,  to  the 
different  centers  of  population,  instructing,  providing 
and  devising  methods  and  improvements  only  possible 
with  a  man  of  collegiate  _  training  and  unselfish  enthu- 
siasm. He  ably  filled  this  position  for  five  years,  one 
year  under  appointment  by  Governor  Potts  and  four 
years  under  his  successor,  Governor  Crosby. 


Judge  Hedges  was  a  member  of  the  Washburn  party 
that  visited  the  geyser  region,  leaving  Helena  August 
17,  1870,  with  a  small  detail  of  United  States  Cavalry, 
under  the  authority  of  General  Hancock,  and  returned 
to  Helena,  November  27,  1870.  It  was  during  the  re- 
turn trip  that  Judge  Hedges  proposed  the  idea  of  a  Na- 
tional Park.  The  lofty  timbered  mountains,  the  im- 
mense water  power  and  the  wonderful  scenery  appealed 
to  all  the  party  and  only  sufficient  wealth  was  needed 
to  exploit  the  region  for  great  private  gain,  but  these 
were  men  of  public  spirit,  state  pride,  and  the  idea  that 
originated  with  Judge  Hedges  immediately  met  with 
the  approval  of  the  party.  It  was  his  idea  that  the  gov- 
ernment should  take  over  these  great  natural  advan- 
tages for  the  country  at  large  and  at  the  very  next  legis- 
lative session  a  memorial  was  sent  to  the  United  States 
Congress.  The  active  cooperation  of  Senator  Pomeroy 
of  Kansas  and  Representative  William  H.  Claggett  of 
Montana  was  secured  and  in  1872  the  cherished  dream 
of  Judge  Hedges  became  a  reality ;  to  the  United  States 
was  preserved  the  wonderful  Yellowstone  region,  now 
the  great  National  Park. 

In  1874  Judge  Hedges  was  chosen  by  the  Republican 
party  as  a  delegate  to  Congress,  but  in  those  days  of 
Democratic  supremacy  he  failed  of  election,  although 
his  personal  following  was  remarkable.  In  1884  he  was 
a  member  of  the  territorial  constitutional  convention, 
and  in  1889  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  first  state 
senate.  He  was  recognized  as  a  man  of  great  legal 
ability,  while  his  knowledge  on  almost  every  other 
branch  of  learning  was  thorough.  He  prepared  several 
volumes  of  Montana  supreme  court  reports,  1880-1887, 
and  prepared  much  material  for  the  Montana  Historical 
Society  and  was  its  recording  secretary  from  1877  until 
1885  and  its  president  in  1905.  In  1899  he  was  nomi- 
nated for  the  United  States  senate.  From  1897  until 
1906  he  was  secretary  of  the  state  board  of  sheep  com- 
missioners. Up  to  the  close  of  his  life  he  retained  his 
natural  powers,  his  keen  eyesight  and  his  firm  pen- 
manship. 

In  the  Masonic  fraternity  Judge  Hedges  seemed  to 
find  an  interest  and  pleasure  that  brought  him  his  largest 
measure  of  enjoyment.  He  devoted  much  time  to  study- 
ing and  working  out  the  spirit  of  the  symbols  and 
architectural  teachings  on  Masonic  subjects,  and  this 
was  frequently  recognized  in  Masonic  literature  and  foi 
vears  he  held  the  office  of  grand  secretary  of  the 
Grand  Lodge,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  the  Royal  Arch  Grand 
Chapter,  Masons,  grand  recorder  of  the  Grand  Com- 
mandery.  Knights  Templar,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death 
was  the  oldest  acting  Masonic  grand  secretary  in  the 
United  States  and  possibly  in  the  world.  He  was  a 
charter  member  of  Miriam  Chapter,  No.  i,  at  Helena, 
and  was  grand  worthy  patron  '^f  the  Order  of  the 
Eastern  Star  in  1893.  He  was  proud  to  refer  to  these 
honors  during  the  closing  years  of  his  life  and  no 
one  was  ever  more  knightly  in  upholding  the  lofty 
ideals  of  the  fraternity. 

On  July  7,  1856,  Judge  Hedges  was  married  to  Miss 
Edna  Layette  Smith,  of  Southington,  Connecticut,  and 
eight  children  were  born  to  them.  On  July  7.  1906,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Hedges  celebrated  their  golden  weddmg.  Mrs. 
Hedges  died  in  Helena  September  26,  1912-  Judge 
Hedges  was  a  man  of  strong  religious  convictions,  and 
was  an  elder  in  the  First  Presbyterian  church  at  Helena. 
Although  full  of  years  at  the  time  of  his  death,  his  life 
had'  been  so  rich  in  worthy  achievement  that  his  loss 
was  felt  in  every  circle,  and  rich  and  poor,  high  dignita- 
ries and  humble  people,  all  united  to  do  honor  to  his 
memory  at  his  funeral. 

The  Montana  Daily  Record  said,  editorially,  at  the 
time  of  Judge  Hedges'  death:  "In  the  death  of  Cor- 
nelius Hedges,  which  occurred  at  his  home  in  this 
city,  Sundav,  there  passed  away  one  to  whom  the  peo- 
ple of  Moiitana  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  which  can 
never  be  repaid.  Coming  to  Montana  with  the  first 
of  the  pioneers,  his  whole  after  life  was  spent  in   the 


'^^?^V^-^'~e^L-oc^    C^c^^^f-^i 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


925 


territory  and  state.  In  the  beginning  he  put  himself 
on  the  side  of  those  who  were  determined  Montana 
should  be  a  safe  haven  for  the  home  maker  and  home 
builder  and  from  that  time  to  the  day  of  his  death  his 
talents  and  his  time  were  always  at  the  service  of  his 
community  and  his  state. 

"In  those  early  days  there  were  few  of  the  pioneers 
who  had  the  educational  equipment  of  Judge  Hedges. 
Reared  in  New  England,  educated  at  Yale,  he  came  to 
this  then  wild  country  and  became  one  with  the  people. 
Never  a  self  seeker,  his  ability  was  soon  recognized 
and  whenever  there  was  need  for  a  service  which  it 
was  thought  could  not  be  so  well  performed  by  anyone 
else,  he  obeyed  the  call.  But  Judge  Hedges  was  not 
only  an  educated  man  and  student;  he  was  in  every 
sense  a  pioneer.  One  of  the  first  lawyers  in  Last 
Chance  gulch  to  practice  his  profession,  he  won  the  con- 
fidence of  the  miners  and  of  the  rough  element  as  well, 
and  his  kindly  counsels  often  in  those  days  prevented 
serious  conflicts  and  attempts  to  overturn  the  authority 
of  the  laws  made  by  the  miners.  As  the  territory  and 
statei  grew  there  was  a  place  for  Judge  Hedges. 
Whether  at  the  head  of  the  territorial  educational  sys- 
tem, a  judge  of  court,  the  representative  of  the  United 
States  government  as  its  district  attorney,  or  the  ed- 
itor of  the  leading  daily  papers  of  the  state.  Judge 
Hedges  was  a  power  for  good,  and  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  best  in  Montana. 

"The  great  work  done  by  Cornelius  Hedges  for  Mon- 
tana will  be  more  appreciated  as  the  years  pass.  There 
are  a  few  who  know  what  a  dominant  personality  he 
was  in  placing  before  the  world  the  beauties  of  the 
Yellowstone  National  Park.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
expedition  which  visited  the  park  and  told  of  its  at- 
tractions to  the  world.  Always  modest  and  keeping  in 
the  background,  others  have  reaped  much  of  the  credit 
that  should  have  gone  to  him  in  connection  with  the 
setting  aside  of  the  park  as  a  national  pleasure  ground. 

"The  Helena  public  library  owes  more  to  Judge  Hedges 
than  to  any  other  for  its  present  efficiency.  In  the  late 
years  to  it  he  devoted  much  of  his  time,  and  its  good 
work  was  his  pride.  Above  and  beyond  all.  Judge 
Hedges  was  a  loyal  Montanian.  He  went  through  the 
good  times  and  the  hard  ones,  and  never  did  he  lose 
faith  in  the  greatness  of  the  state  and  its  future.  As 
it  was  with  the  state,  so  with  his  adopted  city.  Helena, 
which  for  so  many  years  had  been  his  home,  was  to 
him  the  one  place  in  all  the  world,  and  he  was  the 
friend  of  every  man  and  woman  in   it. 

"Thoughtful,  kind,  charitable,  ever  ready  to  heed  the 
call  of  the  unfortunate,  without  selfishness  or  guile, 
no  better  man  has  ever  lived  in  Montana,  nor  to  any 
is  there  a  higher  meed  of  praise  due  for  what  he  did 
and  gave  to  Montana." 

Cornelius  and  Edna  Layette  (Smith)  Hedges,  were 
the  parents  of  eight  children,  two  sons  and  a  daughter, 
died  in  early  life,  while  those  surviving  are:  Wyllys 
Anderson,  of  Fergus  county,  Montana,  formerly  a 
sheep  grower,  and  was  speaker  of  the  lower  house  in 
the  Qth  assembly.  At  the  present  time  he  is  receiver 
of  the  United  States  Land  Office  at  Lewiston,  Mon- 
tana ;  Henry  Highland,  formerly  a  stockman  of  Valley 
county,  Montana,  now  a  resident  of  California,  where  he 
is  engaged  in  the  dairy  business ;  Cornelius  Hedges, 
his  father's  namesake,  was  closely  associated  with  him 
for  many  years  and  succeeded  to  many  of  his  responsi- 
bilities. He  was  born  at  Helena.  Montana,  March  14, 
1874,  and  was  educated  at  Helena  and  spent  one  year 
at  the  high  school  in  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan.  He  en- 
tered upon  the  study  of  law,  but  owing  to  his  father's 
failing  health,  was  obliged  to  assist  in  official  work 
and  never  continued  his  law  studies  to  a  conclusion. 
When  fifteen  years  of  age  he  was  appointed  a  page 
at  the  constitutional  convention  of  the  state,  and  later 
was  cashier  in  the  watei^  works  office  at  Helena  for 
six  years.  During  all  this  time  he  was  his  father's 
assistant  in  attending  to  the  great  mass  of  work  as  Ma- 


sonic secretary  and  since  the  death  of  his  father  has 
creditably  filled  the  same  office.  Mr.  Hedges  is  un- 
married and  resides  at  Helena;  Edna  Corneha,  Mrs. 
Harry  B.  Palmer,  who  resides  in  Helena;  Emily  Mar- 
ion, is  Mrs.  John  M.  Woodbridge,  of  Newton,  Mass. 

Sherman  Ferson  Tuttle.  The  world  instinctively 
and  justly  renders  deference  to  the  man  whose  success 
in  life  has  been  worthily  achieved,  who  has  attained  a 
competence  by  honorable  methods  and  whose  high  repu- 
tation is  solely  the  result  of  preeminent  merit  in  his 
chosen  profession.  Such  a  man  is  Hon.  Sherman  Fer- 
son Tuttle,  president  of  the  Bank  of  Boulder,  member 
from  Jefferson  county  in  the  Montana  state  legislature 
and  extensively  engaged  in  ranching  and  stock-raising. 

Mr.  Tuttle  is  a  Hoosier  by  birth,  his  life  record  hav- 
ing begun  in  Noble  county,  Indiana,  July  21,  1848.  In 
April  of  the  next  year  his  parents  moved  to  Warren 
county,  Iowa,  and  he  lived  in  Warren  and  Marion  coun- 
ties until  he  attained  to  the  age  of  fourteen  years.  The 
family  then  went  to  Denver,  Colorado,  but  remained 
there  only  eight  weeks  before  going  on  to  Stockton, 
California.  After  six  months  in  Stockton,  they  came 
to  Montana  in  the  spring  of  1864  and  on  July  8  of  that 
year  made  location  at  Alder  Gulch.  There  they  lived 
until  the  fall  of  1866  and  then  took  up  their  residence 
in  Fish  Creek,  Jefferson  county,  which  was  at  that  time 
a  part  of  Madison  county,  legislation  subsequently  divid- 
ing it  and  making  it  part  of  Jefferson  county.  The 
family  lived  in  those  early  days  on  the  property  which 
was  afterward  known  as  the  John  B.  Wellcome  ranch. 
There  Mr.  Tuttle  of  this  review  lived  for  many  years, 
but  in  1897  he  went  to  Whitehall  and  since  that  year 
has  been  engaged  in  farming  and  stock-raising.  In 
November,  1900  he  bought  the  Belcher  ranch,  situated 
one  mile  from  Boulder,  and  in  this  city  he  now  re- 
sides. Boulder  has  welcomed  him  as  one  of  the  most 
progressive  and  useful  of  her  citizens,  and  very  shortly 
after  coming  here  he  was  elected  county  treasurer  of 
Jefferson  county  and  served  in  that  important  office  for 
two  years.  After  concluding  his  public  service  Mr. 
Tuttle  returned  to  his  ranch  and  remained  engaged  in 
the  conduct  of  its  affairs  until  1906,  when  he  bought  out 
the  interest  of  F.  C.  Beherendes  in  the  Bank  of  Boulder 
and  has  ever  since  been  identified  with  its  affairs,  having 
a  controlling  interest  in  the  bank  and  holding  the  office 
of  president.  This  is  one  of  the  momentary  institutions 
which  emphasize  and  exert  marked  influence  in  con- 
severing  the  financial  stability  and  commercial  prestige 
of  Jefferson  county.  He  is  also  a  director  of  the  White- 
hall  State   Bank,   at  Whitehall,   Montana. 

In  the  year  191 1  he  was  elected  on  the  Democratic 
ticket  to  the  state  legislature  and  his  services  for  his 
constituents  in  the  state  assembly  have  been  greatly  to 
his  credit  and  their  profit.  He  is  also  president  of  the 
Boulder  school  board  and  he  has  been  very  zealous 
in  his  championship  of  the  best  education  possible.  He 
is  one  of  the  stalwart  advocates  of  Democratic  policies 
and  principles,  has  for  a  good  many  years  been  active 
in  politics  and  is  well  known  for  his  public-spirited  at- 
titude  toward  all   concerning  the  community's  welfare. 

Mr.  Tuttle  was  married  March  16,  1873,  at  Fish  Creek, 
?tIontana,  the  young  woman  to  become  his  wife  and  the 
mistress  of  his  household  being  Derinda  Jane  Butt, 
daughter  of  Jonas  and  Louanna  (Gist)  Butt,  originally 
of  the  state  of  Missouri.  Mrs.  Tuttle  was  born  on  a 
Missouri  farm,  situated  midway  between  Kansas  City 
and  Independence.  To  the  subject  and  his  wife  have 
been  born  ten  children,  eight  of  whom  survive,  as  fol- 
lows :  Arthur ;  Cora  Jane,  widow  of  George  Melton  and 
resides  in  Escondido,  California,  and  the  mother  of  five 
daughters :  Sherman  resides  hi  Sacramento,  California, 
and  has  one  daughter ;  Claud  resides  in  Pocatello,  Idaho ; 
Earl  resides  at  Whitehall,  Montana ;  Ada  is  Mrs.  Joseph 
INIoore,  of  Boulder;  Lulu  Oleta  and  Julian  Errett.  The 
eldest  son  is  associated  with  his  father  in  the  bank,  as 
assistant  cashier. 


926 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


Mr.  Tuttle's  father,  whose  name  was  David  Tuttle, 
was  born  on  Long  Island  in  1809;  removed  to  Ohio  at  an 
an  early  age  and  in  the  Bucke}e  state  married  Miss 
Lucinda  Cornwall.  Shortly  after  their  marriage  they 
went  to  Indiana,  the  subject's  birthplace.  David  Tut- 
tle's name  was  originally  Tuthil,  but  upon  reaching  the 
Noble  county  and  Wabash  river  country  where  he  lo- 
cated he  found  so  many  Tuthils  that  in  order  to  avoid 
confusion  he  obligingly  changed  his  name  to  Tuttle,  by 
which  name  his  family  has  ever  since  been  known.  The 
father  died  after  coming  to  Montana,  on  January  15, 
1870,  but  the  mother  survived  for  many  years,  lier  de- 
mise occurring  in  1895.  Both  are  interred  in  Fish  Creek 
cemetery,   as  are  also  his  wife's  parents. 

Mr.  Tuttle,  of  this  review,  is  a  prominent  Mason  and 
his  religious  faith  is  that  of  the  Methodist  church. 
South.  He  is  not  especially  interested  in  out-door  sports 
and  diversions  of  various  sorts,  but  finds  his  greatest 
pleasure  at  his  own  fireside,  in  the  company  of  wife 
and  children,  like  so  many  men  worth  while  being  es- 
sentially domestic  in  nature. 

His  schooling  was  terminated  at  the  age  of  fourteen 
years,  but  he  has  since  remedied  any  such  educational 
defects  as  may  have  existed  by  his  own  efforts.  At 
the  age  of  twelve  years  his  principal  ambition  in  life 
was  to  own  a  pair  of  boots,  and  he  worked  sixteen  days 
for  a  neighbor,  at  a  compen.sation  of  twenty-five  cents 
a  day,  and  had  this  realized.  The  ability  to  get  what 
he  wants  still  characterizes  him. 

The  journey  made  to  Denver  by  his  parents  in  his 
boyhood  was  overland  with  ox  teams ;  its  tedium  needs 
no  comment.  They  traveled  io  California  with  mules 
and  horses  and  by  the  same  method  to  Montana.  On 
their  trip  down  the  Humboldt  river  in  Nevada  they 
were  much  troubled  by  the  Indians,  who  displayed  a 
somewhat  hostile  spirit.  In  some  way  one  of  the  fam- 
ilies became  separated  from  the  crowd,  the  Indians  cut- 
ting off  their  return.  Later  the  noise  of  an  attack 
frightened  the  mules  of  the  lost  family  and  the  mules 
dashed  madly  away  and  rejoined  the  train.  Just  how 
they  accomplished  this  has  always  been  unexplainable 
to  everybody. 

In  the  spring  of  1870,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on 
the  live  stock  business,  the  subject  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  his  two  brothers.  Elihu  Francis  and  Harrison 
Jordan,  and  this  partnership  continued  unbroken  and 
Ajith  the  pleasantest  of  relations  until  the  death  of 
Elihu  Francis  on  July  2-5,  1907.  at  Lewistown,  Mon- 
tana. The  estate  was  then  closed  out.  The  three  broth- 
ers carried  on  a  very  extensive  business  in  Jefferson, 
Fergus  and  Valley  counties.  Seldom  have  three  people 
been  so  long  and  so  happily  associated,  and  its  only  ex- 
planation is  the  unselfish  spirit  of  every  one  of  them. 
Mr.  Tuttle  enjoys  thf  respect  and  confidence  of  all  with 
whom  he  comes  in  contact  and  as  one  of  Jefferson 
county's  renresentative  citizens  and  builders,  no  one  is 
better  entitled  to  a  position  in  this  history. 

Harrison  Jordan.  The  late  Harrison  Jordan,  one  of 
the  eminently  successful  ranchers  and  general  agricul- 
turists of  the  Treasure  state,  covered  varied  experiences 
and  divers  localities  during  his  full  life  of  eighty-six 
years,  forty-eight  of  which  were  merged  in  the  fortunes 
of  the  young  and  growing  ^Montana.  His  parents,  repre- 
senting respectively  Scotch-Irish  and  German  ancestral 
lines,  were  William  F.  and  Isabelle  (Painter)  Jordan; 
the  place  of  his  nativity  was  that  part  of  southern  Illi- 
nois which  is  known  as  "Egypt;"  and  the  date  of  his 
birth  was  March  17,  1825.  In  1847  his  father's  family 
removed  to  Pleasantville.  Iowa,  a  town  surveyed  and 
plotted  by  his  brother  Wesley,  and  that  state  he  called 
his  home  for  several  years.  In  1846  three  of  the  Jordan 
brothers  enlisted  for  service  in  Mexico,  in  a  company 
of  the  First  Illinois  Volunteers,  under  Captain  James  D. 
Morgan  and  Colonel  John  J.  Hardin,  the  latter  of  whom 
met   his   death   in   the   historic   events    at   Bucna   Vista. 


After  the  close  of  the  war,  Mr.  Jordan  returned  to  Illi- 
nois and  was  mustered  out  of  service  at   Quincy. 

Returning  to  Iowa,  then  the  home  of  the  family,  Har- 
rison Jordan  was  active  in  public  service,  both  peda- 
gogical and  civic.  A  period  of  teaching,  combined  with 
work  as  clerk  of  the  board  of  commissioners  of  Marion 
county,  occupied  him  until  the  winter  of  1851-2,  at  which 
time  he  undertook  what  is  always  a  memorable  office. 
As  town  agent,  he  laid  out  the  town  of  Indianola,  in 
Warren  county.  This  practically  closed  his  activities  in 
Iowa,  for  the  intense  interest  of  that  epoch  of  gold  dis- 
coveries in  the  west  had  claimed  him  as  one  of  its  par- 
ticipants. In  that  same  winter  Mr.  Jordan  went  to  Cali- 
fornia by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  He  found 
the  Golden  state  a  field  for  many  profitable  activities, 
due  to  the  rapidly  growing  population  and  the  high 
prices  paid  for  commodities.  His  main  line  of  activity 
was  dairying,  in  which  he  engaged  until  the  spring  of 
1855,  at  which  time  he  returned  to  Iowa.  There  he 
spent  seven  years  in  mercantile  business,  at  the  end  of 
that  time  again  responding  to  the  call  of  the  west.  Dis- 
posing of  his  interests  in  Iowa,  he  undertook  the  experi- 
ment of  crossing  the  plains  to  Colorado  with  mule 
teams.  He  thus  arrived  in  Colorado,  where  for  a  year 
he  conducted  a  dairying  enterprise,  closing  that  activity 
to  resume  his  travels  by  mule  teams,  proceeding  again 
to  California,  though  with  a  brief  stay  at  Carson  City, 
Nevada,  en  route.  In  the  spring  of  1864  he  returned 
toward  the  east  as  far  as  Montana,  which  became  his 
permanent  home. 

Having  brought  with  him  a  carefully  selected  stock 
of  merchandise  for  miners,  Mr.  Jordan  came  in  July 
of  the  year  mentioned  to  Alder  Gulch,  where  he  started 
a  store.  As  the  venture  proved  to  be  less  successful 
than  he  had  expected,  he  took  property  at  Fish  Creek, 
where  he  entered  upon  the  activities  of  dairying  and 
the  raising  of  stock.  For  thirty-two  years  he  continued 
this  work,  the  latter  part  of  that  time  being  devoted 
chiefly  to  the  stock-raising  features  of  his  business.  In 
1898  he  disposed  of  his  Fish  Creek  holdings  and 
removed  to  Pleasant  Valley  where,  in  a  beautiful  modern 
residence,  he  continued  to  reside  throughout  his  remain- 
ing years. 

Although  retired  Mr.  Jordan  was  by  no  means  inactive. 
The  many  accessory  interests  of  his  life  did  not  cease 
to  engage  his  thought.  For  the  last  thirty-five  or  forty 
years  of  his  life  he  was  a  notary  public  and  also  for 
many  years  a  school  trustee.  He  was  always  a  hard 
worker  and  an  influential  member  of  the  Democratic 
jiarty,  which  he  ably  served  at  different  times  during 
his  more  active  years.  Both  in  1866  and  in  1S72  he  was 
a  member  of  the  territorial  legislature  of  Montana ;  and 
in  1874  he  was  chairman  of  the  Board  of  County  Com- 
missioners of  Jefferson  county. 

Mr.  Jordan  was  active  and  highly  honored  in  his  con- 
nection with  the  Independent  Order  of  Odd  Fellows,  in 
which  he  had  passed  all  chairs ;  and  with  the  Ancient 
Free  and  Accepted  Masons,  in  which  order  he  was 
advanced  in  the  year  1850  to  the  Royal  Arch  degree. 
In  1871  he  organized  and  became  the  first  master  of  the 
Silver  Star  Lodge,  at  Silver  Star,  Montana.  That  lodge 
was  later  merged  with  the  Mystic  Tie  Lodge  at  White- 
hall, and  of  that  organization  he  remained  a  member 
until  the  close  of  his  life.  He  was  senior  grand  steward 
of  the  Grand  Lodge  in  1872,  grand  warden  in  1873  and 
deputy  grand  master  in   1885. 

The  companion  of  Mr.  Jordan's  mature  life  was  Cathe- 
rine Tuttle  Jordan,  a  native  of  Mansfield,  Ohio,  where 
she  was  born  on  February  14,  1836,  and  a  daughter  of 
David  Tuttle,  of  Long  Island,  New  York,  and  Lucinda 
(Cornwall)  Tuttle,  of  Canada.  Mrs.  Jordan's  father 
had  in  his  childhood  removed  with  his  father  from  New 
York  to  Ohio,  had  gone  later  to  Indiana  and  still  later 
to  Iowa.  In  the  last-named  state  they  lived  for  a  con- 
siderable time  and  eventually  accompanied  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Jordan  to  Montana.     The  marriage  of  Catherine  Tuttle 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


927 


and  Harrison  Jordan  had  taken  place  on  November  28, 
1850,  and  in  the  succeeding  years  they  became  the  par- 
ents of  six  children,  all  of  whom  they  creditably  reared 
to  years  of  maturity.  These  sons  and  daughters,  each 
of  whom  is  creditably  established  in  life,  are  as  follows : 
Celeste  Grace,  Mrs.  William  Wesley  McCall  of  White- 
hall ;  Violet  Josephine,  Mrs.  Reese  Wampler  of  Gold- 
tield,  Nevada ;  Perneca  Etta,  Mrs.  Arthur  Phelps  of 
Whitehall;  Ida  Isabel,  Mrs.  F.  A.  Riggin,  of  Barr,  Val- 
ley county,  Montana;  Rev.  Walter  Marion  Jordan,  of 
whom  somewhat  extended  account  is  given  below ;  and 
Jasper  O.  Jordan,  who  is  a  rancher  on  the  homestead  in 
Pleasant  Valley.  The  family  of  Harrison  Jordan  and 
his  wife  also  includes  a  number  of  grandchildren  and 
one  great-grandchild,  born  during  their  lives.  On 
November  28,  1900,  they  celebrated  their  golden  wed- 
ding, at  which  a  goodly  number  of  their  descendants 
were  present. 

The  family  of  Harrison  Jordan  have  been  eminently 
connected  with  the  Christian  church,  with  which  denom- 
ination Mr.  Jordan  became  connected  at  the  age  of 
nineteen,  while  at  Yrsa,  Illinois.  In  Montana  he  was 
a  prime  mover  in  and  charter  member  of  the  church 
established  at  Fish  Creek.  He  also  aided  in  founding 
the  church  at  Whitehall  and  for  m.any  years  gave  earnest 
and  efficient  service  as  an  elder.  He  was  active  and 
prominent  in  the  Montana  Society  of  Pioneers  of  which 
he  was  a  typical  member. 

On  April  29,  1903,  Mrs.  Jordan,  a  woman  of  rare 
saintliness,  passed  to  the  other  life,  which  in  antici- 
pation had  for  her  such  a  vivid  reality;  and  on  October 
2,  1910,  Harrison  Jordan,  who  had  so  fearlessly  faced 
many  earthly  adventures,  who  had  frankly  and  heartily 
met  the  world,  who  had  so  loyally  kept  as  his  standard 
the  highest  spiritual  ideal — he,  the  pioneer  of  rough  and 
primitive  countries,  entered  a  new  country  and  a  new 
home  of  divine  perfection  and  eternal  satisfaction. 

Henry  M.  Parchen.  No  man  living  in  the  state  to- 
day is  more  thoroughly  identified  with  its  history  and 
progress  than  is  Henry  M.  Parchen.  For  nearly  half 
a  century  he  has  lived  in  Montana,  and  has  seen  it  grow 
from  a  sparsely  settled  mining  and  stock-growing  re- 
gion to  the  proud  position  of  a  flourishing  and  progres- 
sive state,  possessing  all  of  the  advantages  enjoyed  by 
the  oldest  settled  regions  of  the  United  States.  In  the 
growth  and  upward  march  of  the  state  Mr.  Parchen  has 
been  a  recognized  force  in  advancing  all  that  was  good 
and  enduring  in  commerce  and  government.  Possessing 
high  ideals  and  an  integrity  that  is  unbending,  he  has 
always  maintained  a  position  that  has  a  decided  ten- 
dency to  foster  and  to  elevate  the  standards  of  com- 
mercial affairs  in  his  own  community.  His  prescience 
and  unfaltering  belief  in  the  ultimate  destiny  of  Mon- 
tana as  a  great  commonwealth  enabled  him  to  so  shape 
his  affairs  that  he  was  sure  to  prosper  as  the  state 
prospered  and  grew  in  population.  He  occupies  todaj' 
an  enviable  position  in  the  business  and  social  life  of 
the  city  of  Helena,  and  may  feel  justly  proud  of  the 
fact  that  he  was  one  of  the  citizens  who  laid  the  foun- 
dation stones,  broad  and  deep,  and  aided  in  directing 
its  course  toward  civic  righteousness  and  honor. 

Mr.  Parchen  is  of  German  descent  and  was  born  in 
Prussia,  June  13,  1839,  the  son  of  George  and  Mary 
Parchen.  The  father  and  grandfather  were  prosperous 
citizens  of  the  communitv  in  which  they  lived,  and  fol- 
lowed the  business  of  millers  and  were  owners  of  grist 
mills.  In  1848  the  parents  were  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of  unrest  that  was  prevalent  among  their  countrymen 
at  that  time  and  determined  to  seek  their  fortune  in  a 
new  land.  They  chose  America  as  the  object  of  their 
destination  and  settled  in  Townlinc,  near  Buffalo,  where 
they  lived  until  1861.  They  then  removed  to  Richard- 
son county.  Nebraska,  where  the  fatlier  purchased  a 
farm  and  took  up  the  life  of  a  practical  farmer,  at 
which  he  continued  until  his  death,  in  1895.     Of  the  four 


children  born  to  George  and  Mary  Parchen,  the  young- 
est was  Henry  M.     He  remained  with  his  parents  untd 
he  was  fourteen  years  of  age  and  attended  the  common 
schools   and   then   took  a   thorough   business   course    in 
the   Bryant   and    Stratton    Business    College  at   Buffalo, 
New    York.     On    leaving    school    he    was    employed    as 
a    clerk  at   Townline   until    1857,    when   he   removed   to 
Marshall   county,    Indiana,    remaining   there   until    1858, 
when  he  went  to  Cincinnati,  Ohio.     In   1862  he  deter- 
mined to  try  his  fortune  in  the  gold  fields  of  Colorado 
and  went  to   Denver,  which  was  then  but  a  small,  in- 
significant town,  but  which  possessed  a  live  and  hust- 
ling   population.     The    times    were    exciting    and    many 
thrilling    incidents    occurred    during    the    residence    of 
Mr.    Parchen    in   that    city.     He    secured    a    position   as 
bookkeeper  in  the  Planter's  House,  one  of  the  leading 
hotels  of  the  town,  and  remained  there  until  the  follow- 
ing spring,  when  he  assumed  charge  of  the  Massasoit 
House  at   Central   City,   which   he   conducted   for  some 
time.     In  1864  the  gold  fields  of  Montana  were  produc- 
ing an  immense  amount  of  yellow  metal  and  Mr.  Par- 
chen, having  acquired  a  taste  for  the  life  and  activity 
of  the  mining  camps,  and  with  a  view  to  bettering  his 
forttines,  started  for  Montana,  and,  arriving  in  Virginia 
City,  was  employed  as  a  bookkeeper  in  the  mercantile 
house  of  Erfurt,  Busch  &  Company  for  about  one  year. 
He  then  joined  Dr.   Wernigk  and  Louis  Keysser,  and 
the  three  proceeded  to   Helena  and  established  a  drug 
and  grocery  store.     Later  on  the  firm  was  changed  to 
Parchen  &  Paynter,  the  new  partner  in  the  concern  be- 
ing W.  S.  Paynter.     The  business  prospered  exceedingly 
in  the  hands  of  the  new  firm  and  was  greatly  extended 
by  the  establishment  of  branch  houses  in  Deer  Lodge 
and  other  important  points.     The  business  of  the  firm 
was  conducted  on  a  large  scale,  both  wholesale  and  re- 
tail, and  became  one  of  the  recognized  substantial  and 
growing  institutions   of   the  territory.     In   1874  the   in- 
terest of   Paynter   was   acquired  by   purchase   and   Mr. 
Parchen    became   the    owner.     The    business    has    since 
been  conducted  in  the  firm  name  of  H.  M.   Parchen  & 
Company.     By   this   consolidation   Mr.    Parchen  became 
the  leading  retail  and  wholesale  dealer  in  drugs  in  the 
northwest  and  this  position  he  has  maintained  until  the 
present  day,  greatly  extending  and  amplifying  his  busi- 
ness as  time  and  the  conditions  of  the  trade  warranted. 
By    his    established    reputation    for    integrity   in    all    his 
dealings   he    has    reached    the    acme   of    success    in    the 
business  and  financial  world  and  his  present  wholesale 
and  retail  establishment  in  Helena  will  compare  favor- 
ably  with    similar    concerns    in   any   city   of  the   world. 
The   Parchen   Drug  Company  is   the  name  of  the  firm 
at    the    present    time,    and    is    composed    of    Henry    M. 
Parchen   and   his   two   sons,   Henry   G.   and   Albert   D., 
and  Adele  M.  Parchen,  his  daughter.     Their  business  is 
carried  on  in  a   fine  three-story  brick  building  on  the 
corner  of  Main  street  and  Broadway,  and  they  own  and 
occupy    in    addition    to    this    fireproof    warehouses    on 
Broadway  and  Jackson  streets.  They  are  also  the  manu- 
facturers  of   pharmaceutical   preparations  and   standard 
remedies   and  have  a  wide  and  increasing  demand  for 
these    products.        Their    goods    are    distributed    in    all 
parts  of  Montana,  Idaho,  Washington  and  Wyoming. 

Mr.  Parchen  has  always  been  identified  with  every 
movement  looking  to  the  progress  of  his  city  and  state 
and  its  steady  advance  and  development  has  been  largely 
due  to  his  influence  and  exertions.  It  was  due  to 
the  influence  of  Mr.  Parchen  and  his  five  associates, 
that  the  three  branch  railroads  connecting  Helena  with 
surrounding  mining  camps  were  built  by  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railway  Company  and  which  have  proved  so 
beneficial  to  the  miners  and  to  the  commercial  growth 
and  expansion  of  the  business  of  Helena.  He  is  pres- 
ident of  the  Penn  Yan  Mining  Company,  whose  prop- 
erty is  located  near  Wickes,  Jefferson  county.  He  is 
interested  largely  in  mines  and  is  a  heavy  realty  holder 
in  and  about  Helena.     He  has  been  foremost  in  the  or- 


928 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


ganization  of  many  industrial  enterprises  of  a  public 
nature  in  this  part  of  the  state  that  have  had  a  direct 
and  lasting  benefit.  As  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Helena  Board  of  Trade  he  was  honored  by  being  named 
as  its  first  president  and  its  usefulness  was  greatly  en- 
hanced by  his  untiring  and  unflagging  efforts,  until 
today  the  Helena  Commercial  Club,  a  direct  descendant 
of  the  former  organization,  is  regarded  as  one  of  the 
strongest  and  most  useful  of  the  kind  in  the  northwest 
for  the  promotion  of  the  general  welfare.  He  is  also 
interested  in  stock  growing  on  a  large  scale  and  is  the 
owner  of  a  vast  tract  of  land  in  Cascade  county,  on 
which  are  ranged  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep,  he  being 
part  owner  of  the  Cascade  Land  Company. 

In  early  life  he  was  affiliated  with  the  Democratic 
party  and  voted  for  Stephen  A.  Douglas  for  the  pres- 
idency in  i860,  but  since  the  second  election  of  Lincoln 
he  has  been  a  staunch  and  consistent  adherent  to  the 
principles  of  the  Republican  party  and  has  been  hon- 
ored by  the  party  by  election  to  positions  of  honor  and 
trust.  For  three  years  he  was  county  commissioner  of 
Lewis  and  Clarke  county  and  was  a  member  of  the 
Twelfth  legislative  assembly.  Fraternally  Mr.  Parchen 
is  prominently  identified  with  the  Masonic  order,  both 
the  York  and  Scottish  Rite,  and  for  thirty-nine  years 
has  served  as  grand  treasurer  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
Montana.     He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Montana  Club. 

In  1872  Mr.  Parchen  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss 
Emma  D'Achuel,  a  descendant  of  one  of  the  old  French 
families  of  St.  Louis,  where  she  was  born.  She  is  a 
gracious,  very  intelligent  and  progressive  woman  and 
is  held  in  the  highest  esteem  by  a  large  acquaintance 
both  in  and  out  of  the  state  of  Montana.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Parchen  have  four  children  who  share  with  them  their 
beautiful  home,  which  is  one  of  the  most  elegant  in  the 
city,  surrounded  with  spacious  grounds  and  adorned 
with  shrubbery  and  shade  trees.  It  is  a  home  where 
hospitality  is  dispensed  with  lavish  hand  and  where 
friends  and  visitors  are  entertained  in  a  manner  fitting 
and  appropriate  to  the  surroundings.  The  children  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parchen  are  Adele  M.,  Henry  G.,  Albert 
D'A.  and  Ruehling  A. 

Mr.  Parchen  has  earned  a  vacation  from  his  arduous 
duties,  carried  on  for  half  a  century,  but  is  still  as 
active  as  ever,  although  he  can  now  relax  to  a  great 
extent,  knowing  that  his  business  affairs  are  in  the 
hands  of  his  sons,  who  are  the  brightest  and  most  ca- 
pable of  young  men,  and  have  been  carefully  educated 
and  trained  to  carry  on  the  great  enterprises  established 
by  their  father.  Several  years  ago  Mr.  Parchen  de- 
termined to  pay  a  visit  to  his  native  land,  and,  accom- 
panied hy  his  wife,  son  and  daughter,  returned  to  the 
place  of  his  birth  in  Prussia.  There  they  were  agree- 
ably surprised  and  pleased  to  find  a  number  of  rela- 
tives, who  were  delighted  at  their  visit  and  took  every 
pains  to  make  their  stay  most  agreeable.  They  ex- 
tended their  trip  around  the  world,  taking  in  all  the 
great  seaports  and  cities,  returning  to  their  home  in 
Helena  possessed  with  a  vivid  and  pleasant  memory  of 
many   lands,  many  peoples  and  many  cities. 

JosiAH  Francis  Beck,  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  of 
Butte  and  one  of  its  best  known  citizens  and  largest 
property  holders,  was  born  in  Indiana,  Indiana  county, 
Pennsylvania,  on  December  16,  1834.  He  was  of  Ger- 
man ancestry,  the  German  rendering  of  the  family  name 
being  von  Beck.  His  father,  William  Beck,  was  a  pros- 
perous farmer  of  Indiana  county,  and  the  Becks  were 
among  the  earliest  settlers  in  that  section  of  the  state. 
His  mother,  Elizabeth  Rowe,  was  likewise  descended 
from  an  old  Pennsylvania  family. 

Frank  Beck,  as  he  was  better  known  to  his  friends 
in  Butte,  was  reared  to  farm  work  and  received  his 
early  education  in  the  district  schools  of  his  native  vil- 
lage. He  later  took  an  academic  course  and  a  special 
business  course  at  Duff's  Business  College  in  Pittsburg, 


and  was  graduated  from  that  school  in  1856.  It  may  be 
stated  here  that  the  young  man  made  his  business  edu- 
cation in  this  college  possible  by  teaching  school  for  a 
number  of  terms,  beginning  when  he  was  but  sixteen 
years  old.  From  1858  to  1861  he  taught  in  Kentucky, 
it  being  his  intention  then  to  follow  the  law  or  medi- 
cine. It  was  more  by  accident  than  design  that  he 
arrived  at  Pike's  Peak  in  1861,  he  being  in  St.  Louis 
on  a  visit  when  he  met  his  only  brother,  Daniel  R., 
who  was  then  preparing  to  go  to  Colorado.  Mr.  Beck 
joined  his  brother's  party  and  they  went  up  the  river  to 
Nebraska  City,  there  joining  a  wagon  train  to  Denver, 
making  the  trip  in  twenty-six  days.  Denver  at  that 
time  consisted  of  but  a  few  streets,  a  number  of  fron- 
tier hotels  and  scattering  stores.  Soon  afterward  the 
party  moved  on  to  Central  City  and  Russell  Gulch, 
then  the  best  camps  in  Colorado.  Mr.  Beck  stopped 
there  a  few  weeks,  where  he  occupied  himself  at  min- 
ing and  was  later  employed  at  various  other  camps, 
continuing  in  prospecting  until  the  summer  of  1863. 
He  then  went  to  Denver  and  was  employed  as  night 
clerk  in  a  hotel  there.  In  the  fall  of  that  year  a  fire 
occurred  in  the  hotel  with  which  he  was  identified,  and 
he  barely  escaped  with  his  life,  and  after  that  expe- 
rience he  decided  to  return  to  the  east  for  a  visit.  In 
the  spring  of  1864  he  outfitted  at  Omaha,  and  with  two 
yoke  of  oxen  and  a  huge  wagon  loaded  with  a  supply 
of  sugar,  bacon  and  flour,  he  made  his  way  safely  back 
to  his  old  camps  in  Colorado,  selling  his  provisions  on 
the  way  for  fabulous  prices.  About  this  time  news  of 
the  gold  strike  in  Alder  Gulch  was  made  public  and  Mr. 
Beck  immediately  set  out  for  Virginia  City,  reaching 
there  on  June  11,  1864.  With  E.  H.  Lockwood  he  bought 
a  claim  at  the  upper  end  of  the  gulch,  which  they 
worked  with  profit.  In  December  of  that  year  he  came 
to  Butte  and  spent  the  winter  at  work  upon  some 
claims  his  brother  had  located  there  during  the  pre- 
vious summer,  and  in  the  summer  following  he  and 
Thomas  Hall  worked  at  dry  digging,  hauling  the  dirt 
to  the  creek  with  whatever  means  they  had  at  their 
disposal,  and  at  the  end  of  three  months,  when  the 
water  failed  them,  they  had  cleaned  up  the  tidy  sum  of 
better  than  $5,000. 

Silver  Bow  was  then  the  county  seat  of  the  larger 
Deer  Lodge  county,  and  Mr.  Beck  being  one  of  the 
best  penmen  in  the  vicinity,  he  was  made  deputy  clerk 
and  recorder,  an  office  which  he  held  for  several  years. 
When  the  county  seat  was  removed  to  Deer  Lodge  city 
in  1865,  Mr.  Beck  went  along.  But  the  continued  con- 
finement of  office  work  was  displeasing  to  a  man  of  his 
nature  and  in  1866  he  resigned  his  position  and  returned 
to  Butte.  That  year  the  Highland  Gulch  excitement 
came  up,  and,  as  before,  Mr.  Beck  was  among  the  first 
on  the  ground.  His  claims  did  not  prove  inordinately 
rich,  and  when  he  finally  gave  up  prospecting  there  he 
found  himself  in  debt.  Thereafter  he  traveled  to  other 
points  in  the  state,  but  in  1874  came  back  to  Butte  and 
worked  for  a  number  of  years  at  shaft  building  and 
other  carpenter  work.  As  much  of  his  savings  as  he 
could  spare  from  his  work  he  invested  in  local  real 
estate,  which  grew  in  value  enormously,  rendering  him 
a   wealthy  man  at   the  time   of  his   death. 

When  Butte  organized  a  city  government  Mr.  Beck 
was  elected  the  first  marshal,  and  at  the  same  time 
Henry  Jacobs  was  chosen  mayor  and  Charles  S.  War- 
ren, police  judge.  Later  Mr.  Beck  held  such  positions 
as  deputy  sheriff,  deputy  county  treasurer  and  city 
treasurer,  always  taking  an  active  and  intelligent  in- 
terest in  local  and  state  politics.  Eventually,  however, 
he  gave  up  office  holding  in  order  that  he  might  de- 
vote his  time  more  fully  to  his  real  estate  interests.  _ 

Mr.  Beck  was  a  Democrat  all  his  life.  He  main- 
tained no  set  religious  views,  but  he  was  a  generous 
contributor  to  all  sects  and  liberally  supported  all 
charitable  enterprises  and  movements  for  the  communal 
welfare.     He  was  never  known  to  withhold  his  hearty 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


929 


influence  and  splendid  financial  support  from  any  worthy 
cause.  In  all  his  dealings  he  acted  the  part  of  a  con- 
scientious and  upright  man,  and  none  was  held  in 
higher  repute  than  he.  His  kind  and  genial  disposition 
made  him  an  amiable  companion  and  a  friend  whom 
all   were  proud  to  claim. 

Fraternally  Mr.  Beck  was  affiliated  with  various  as- 
sociations. He  was  a  charter  member  of  Red  Mountain 
Lodge,  No.  12,  of  the  Alasons,  organized  in  1869,  and 
he  later  joined  Butte  Lodge,  No.  22,  of  which  he  was 
the  first  master  elected  in  1877.  He  was  also  a  charter 
member  of  Damon  Lodge,  Knights  of  Pythias.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Mountain  Pioneers,  and 
for  years  was  president  of  the  Rod  and  Gun  Club  of 
Butte.  He  was  particularly  fond  of  dogs,  of  which  he 
owned  several  valuable  ones  at  all  times,  and  found 
great  pleasure  in  hunting  and  fishing,  all  outdoor  life 
appealing  to  him  as  a  true  lover  of  nature. 

Mr.  Beck  died  in  Butte  on  April  28,  1909,  and  is 
buried  in  Mount  Moriah  cemetery. 

John  F.  Teb.\y.  The  late  John  F.  Tebay,  a  success- 
ful and  well-known  citizen  and  stock-grower  of  Jeffer- 
son county,  was  a  Montana  pioneer  of  marked  pros- 
perity. He  came  to  this  state  from  Illinois,  his  native 
state,  but  was  a  representative  of  English  families. 
William  Tebay  and  Mary  Furthergole,  his  parents,  were 
both  born  in  England,  both  came  early  to  America  and 
settled  in  Kendall  county,  Illinois,  where  they  were  mar- 
ried at  the  little  town  of  Bristol.  William  Tebay  be- 
came a  farmer  in  that  vicinity  and  was  otherwise  en- 
gaged during  his  lifetime  in  mercantile  business  in  Chi- 
cago, while  that  city  was  yet  young.  He  conducted  a 
store  on  Dearborn  street,  just  across  the  river  on  the 
north  side.  He  died  in  the  Illinois  metropolis  in  1849, 
and  his  burial  place  was  a  plot  of  ground  in  the  section 
that  has  since  become  Lincoln  Park.  Mary  Further- 
gole Tebay  lived  until  1884,  spending  her  later  days 
in  Montgomery,  Illinois.  They  were  highly  regarded 
at  a  time  and  in  a  locality  which  ranked  character  as 
the  true  aristocracy. 

John  F.  Tebay,  the  son  of  William  Tebay,  and  Mary, 
his  wife,  was  born  in  Oswego,  Illinois,  on  the  ninth 
day  of  October,  1840.  In  the  public  schools  of  that 
place  he  received  his  education  and  as  a  boy  assisted 
his  father  with  his  different  enterprises.  When  he  was 
nineteen  years  of  age  he  attempted  to  find  a  fortune 
at  Pike's  Peak,  but  being  unsuccessful,  returned  home 
after  three  months.  He  did  not,  however,  give  up  the 
idea  of  financially  finding  himself  in  the  west.  Five 
years  later,  in  1864,  he  ventured  forth  upon  an  overland 
trip,  with  a  horse-team,  to  Montana.  When  he  reached 
Fort  Kearney,  Nebraska,  he  found  it  advisable  to  wait 
until  a  train  of  teams  could  be  formed  in  order  to  in- 
sure protection  from  the  Indians  during  the  remainder 
of  the  journey.  He  was  obliged  to  remain  at  the  fort 
for  two  weeks,  by  the  end  of  which  time  seventy-five 
wagons  had  arrived.  Forming  a  train,  all  started  toward 
Salt  Lake  City,  which  they  reached  without  e.xpcrienc- 
ing  any  excitement  from  Indian  attacks,  although  trains 
preceding  and  following  them  were  caused  not  a  little 
trouble  of  a  serious  nature.  From  Salt  Lake  they  pro- 
ceeded to  respective  points  in  Montana.  Mr.  Tebay's 
objective  point  being  Virginia  City,  which  he  reached 
on  September  10,  1864.  Not  long  afterward  he  removed 
to  Jefferson  Island,  in  Jefferson  county,  where  he  took 
pre-emption  and  homestead  claims,  later  a  part  of  his 
ranch  property,  which  at  the  time  of  his  death  com- 
prised 1,600  acres.  In  establishing  this  ranch  Mr.  Te- 
bay made  dairying  his  major  enterprise.  During  the  first 
winter  of  his  residence  and  business  at  Jefferson  Island 
he  sold  butter  at  $3.00  a  pound ;  it  then  dropped  to 
$1.50;  remaining  stationary  for  four  or  five  years,  and 
when  finally  the  rate  dropped  to  $1.00  per  pound  Mr. 
Tebay  discontinued  dairying  and  specialized  in  cattle- 
raising.     From   1875  to  1880  he  pastured  1,400  head  of 


cattle  on  the  Musselshell  river,  later  selling  the  entire 
herd. 

At  the  time  of  initiating  his  cattle  business  Mr.  Tebay 
had  gone  east  by  steamboat  from  Fort  Benton  in  the 
autumn  of  1867;  in  the  spring  of  the  following  year 
he  had  returned  with  sixteen  horses  and  a  load  of 
freight.  From  that  time  he  steadily  continued  his  stock- 
growing,  usually  wintering  from  500  to  1,000  head  of 
cattle  and  from  300  to  500  horses.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  he  owned  this  extensive  ranch  of  1,600  acres, 
another  of  320  acres  near  Whitehall,  valuable  farm 
property  in  Franklin  county,  Iowa,  real  estate  in  the 
city  of  Helena  and  holdings  of  a  similar  kind  in  Mont- 
gomery, Illinois.  In  Whitehall  he  also  owned  two  large 
brick  business  buildings  and  a  number  of  dwellings. 
The  fine  brick  residence  which  was  the  family  home- 
stead at  the  original  ranch,  together  with  the  other 
buildings  surrounding  it,  indicated  the  progressive  spirit 
of  the  owner  of  that  property,  for  it  was  counted  one 
of  the  best  in  the  county. 

Mrs.  John  F.  Tebay  was  one  of  two  daughters  of 
Joseph  and  Lucina  (Young)  Hager,  of  New  York. 
Alice  Hager  was  born  February  22,  1849,  in  Kendall 
county,  Illinois,  and  her  marriage  to  Mr.  Tebay  oc- 
curred on  August  5,  1880.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tebay  be- 
came the  parents  of  three  children,  all  of  whom  were 
reared  to  maturity.  James  Boyd  Tebay  is  engaged  in 
ranching  near  Whitehall.  Miss  Kate  Tebay  became  Mrs. 
John  V.  Huffman,  of  Whitehall,  and  is  the  mother  of 
one  daughter,  Alice  Huffman.  Miss  Claire  became  Mrs. 
John  M.  Crow,  whose  husband  has  taken  charge  of  the 
Tebay  homestead  estate  near  Whitehall.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Crow  are  the  parents  of  one  son,  John  Franklin  Crow. 

John  Tebay,  the  creator  of  the  prosperity  outlined 
above  and  the  progenitor  of  the  family  he  has  left  to 
enjoy  it,  closed  his  earthly  activities  on  February  9, 
1903,  and  was  buried  at  Whitehall.  Mrs.  Tebay,  who 
with  his  son  and  daughters  survives  the  husband  and 
father,  is  residing  near  Whitehall. 

Joseph  H.'Mnds.  Success  has  been  worthily  attained 
by  Joseph  Hainds,  who  is  today  accounted  one  of  the 
most  prosperous  and  influential  citizens  of  the  Beaver- 
head valley.  To  his  energy-,  enterprise,  careful  manage- 
ment and  keen  discernment  his  present  station  in  life 
is  attributed.  For  many  years  he  followed  ranching 
in  this  county,  but  retired  in  1908  and  is  now  free  to 
enjoy  in  leisure  the  fruits  of  his  former  industry  and 
thrift.  Mr.  Hainds  is  one  of  the  Montana  pioneers — a 
stock  impossible  to  surpass  in  courage,  integrity  and 
ability,  not  even  by  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  and  today  he 
enjoys  not  merely  the  respect,  confidence  and  good 
will  of  an  entire  community,  but  also  its  affection,  as 
one  of  that  fine  company  who  paved  the  way  for  lat- 
ter day  prosperitv  and  good  government,  and  in  all  the 
years   has   fostered  it. 

Mr.  Hainds  was  born  in  Sheridan  countv,  Missouri, 
March  8,  1844,  and  there  resided  until  eighteen  years 
of  age.  Then,  lured  by  the  reports  of  the  richness  of 
the  opening  west,  he  came  overland  to  Montana,  and 
arrived  in  the  state  December  5,  1864.  His  tenure  of 
residence  within  the  favored  boundaries  of  Montana 
dates  from  that  time — nearly  a  half  century.  He  first 
located  in  Virginia  City,  where  he  engaged  in  mining, 
and  in  March,  1865,  went  to  Helena,  but  remained  there 
but  a  short  time,  going  on  in  June  of  that  year  to 
Blackfoot,  where  he  continued  to  live  for  twelve  years. 
At  the  termination  of  that  period  he  went  to  Sin  River 
Crossing  and  was  there  for  about  four  years,  engaging 
in  the  stock  business.  His  next  move  was  to  Miles 
City,  where  he  remained  a  year,  and  thence  he  went  to 
Red  Rock,  Beaverhead  county,  where  he  was  to  stay 
for  many  years,  his  operation  in  ranching  and  stock- 
raisincr  continuing  until  1908,  when  he  retired  and  rame 
to  Dillon.  During  almost  his  entire  career  he  has  been 
upon  an  independent  footing  and  the  only  salaried  po- 


930 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


sition  he  ever  held  in  Montana  was  when  he  worked 
for  Ohver  &  Company,  opening  the  stage  office  at 
Blackfoot  for  this  firm  and  having  under  his  manage- 
ment a  large  number  of  teams  and  men.  He  has 
always  proved  a  valuable  factor  in  any  enterprise,  pos- 
sessing executive  ability,  tireless  energy,  engineering 
skill  and  genius  in  the  broad  combination  and  concen- 
tration of  applicable  forces.  He  gained  his  elementary 
education  in  the  public  schools  of  Missouri  and  then 
took  a  higher  course  in  the  college  at  Mounds,  Mis- 
souri. He  earned  his  first  money  as  a  boy  of  twelve 
years,  as  clerk  in  a  store  in  Missouri,  and  at  an  early 
age  were  learned  those  lessons  in  industry  and  thrift 
which  have  since  stood  him  in  such  good  stead. 

Mr.  Hainds  is  actively  identified  with  the  Democratic 
party,  in  the  superiority  of  those  policies  and  prin- 
ciples he  has  ever  believed.  He  has  ever  held  himself 
in  readiness  to  do  anything  in  his  power  to  advance 
the  welfare  of  the  cause  and  he  is  decidedly  influen- 
tial in  party  ranks.  He  formerly  held  the  office  of 
justice  of  the  peace  and  is  street  commissioner  at  the 
present  time.  His  loyalty  to  state,  county  and  town 
is  unquestioned  and  in  all  that  effects  Dillon  and  its 
people  he  has  keen  interest  and  there  is  no  local  move- 
ment which  in  his  judgment  promises  benefit  to  any 
considerable  number  of  his  fellow  citizens  that  does  not 
have  his  cordial  advocacy  and  generous  support.  He  is 
a  Presbyterian  in  his  religious  conviction,  while  the  faith 
of  his  admirable  wife  is  that  of  the  Baptist  church. 
He  is  like  the  normal  man,  very  fond  of  out-door  life 
and  in  his  younger  days  was  noted  far  and  wide  as 
an  expert  rider,  fearless  of  the  most  fiery  and  capri- 
cious mount. 

Mr.  Hainds  was  happily  married  at  Red  Rock,  Mon- 
tana, January  i,  1883,  the  maiden  name  of  his  wife  being 
Rose  Best.  They  have  two  children,  as  follows:  Henry, 
born  October  15,  1888,  an  expert  machinist  and  resi- 
dent in  Dillon,  and  Jessie,  born  at  Red  Rock,  Novem- 
ber 16,  1898,  and  now  a  high  school  student. 

Mr.  Hainds'  father,  Henry  Hainds,  was  born  in  St. 
Charles  county,  Missouri,  and  lived  in  that  state  through- 
out his  entire  life,  following  farming  and  also  doing 
considerable  speculating.  The  mother,  whose  maiden 
name  was  Jane  Smith,  was  born  in  Virginia  and  mar- 
ried in  Missouri,  where  she  is  interred  side  by  side  with 
her  life  companion.  Mr.  Hainds  is  the  eldest  in  a 
family  of  three  children.  He  was  but  twelve  years  old 
when  his  father  died,  and  virtually  ever  since  that  time 
he  has  been  hustling  for  himself. 

Amos  Buck.  The  life  of  Amos  Buck  is  in  itself  a 
minature  history  of  the  state  of  Montana.  It  was  such 
sons  as  he  who  led  her  from  a  wild  mining  camp  to  a 
fair  and  prosperous  state,  the  peer  of  any  of  her  sisters. 
Mr.  Buck  has  shared  her  fortunes  from  the  first  in 
placer  mining,  as  an  Indian  fighter,  an  orchardist,  a 
ranchman  and  a  merchant.  Her  success  has  meant  his 
success  and  his  advancement  hers,  until  now  he  is 
known  as  a  merchant  king  in  the  oldest  of  her  cities, 
Stevensville. 

Mr.  Buck  was  born  back  in  Sandusky,  Ohio,  on  Feb- 
ruary 26,  1844.  His  father,  George  Buck  was  a  farmer 
who  came  from  Pennsylvania  to  Ohio,  and  later  moved 
his  family  to  Michigan,  where  he  spent  the  last  days  of 
his  life.  The  mother,  Susan  Snell  Buck,  also  a  native 
of  Pennsylvania,  gave  birth  to  thirteen  children  and  lived 
to  the  age  of  ninty-one,  being  at  last  laid  to  rest  beside 
her  husband  in  Monroe  county,  Michigan.  Only  three 
of  the  thirteen  offspring  are  now  living:  Amos,  the 
subject  of  this  sketch ;  Susan,  a  widowed  sister,  who 
married  H.  C.  Vandercock  and  now  makes  her  home  in 
Sacramento,  California ;  and  a  brother,  Henry,  who  was 
for  a  number  of  years  associated  with  Amos  Buck  in 
the  mercantile  business.  In  191 1  he  sold  his  interest  in 
the  business  to  his  brother  and  has  now  assumed  the 
active  management  of  his  extensive  ranch  and  orchard 
lands  in  the  Bitter  Root  valley.  Fred  Buck,  who  is  now 
deceased,    was   the   captain   of   Company   B,    Michigan 


First  Heavy  Artillery.  He  served  his  country  loyally 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  Civil  war. 

Amos  Buck  attended  the  graded  school  and  high 
school  of  Monroe,  Michigan,  and  received  a  brief  course 
in  the  Michigan  State  Normal  school.  When  eighteen 
years  of  age,  his  brother-in-law,  Fred  Bitting,  offered 
him  a  position  in  his  general  store  at  Bellvue,  Ohio. 
It  was  here  that  Mr.  Buck  received  his  first  practical 
experience  in  mercantile  life.  Even  during  his  boy- 
hood he  had  dreamed  of  the  west,  and  the  little  Ohio 
town  seemed  lifeless  and  enervating  in  comparison  with 
the  freedom  and  inspiration  of  those  dreams.  For 
two  years  he  clerked  faithfully,  in  the  employ  of  his 
relative,  saving  all  that  he  could  of  his  meager  wage 
that  his  dream  might  become  a  reality.  In  the  spring 
of  'sixty-four,  he  left  Ohio  by  rail  for  St.  Joe,  Missouri. 
There  he  joined  a  company  of  twenty  men,  bound  for 
the  west.  It  fell  to  his  lot  to  drive  the  four-yoke  ox 
team  most  of  the  distance  across  the  plains  to  Alder 
Gulch,  now  dignified  by  the  name  of  Virginia  City.  The 
journey  consumed  one  hundred  and  forty-six  days,  but 
to  Mr.  Buck  it  was  a  pleasure,  as  it  was  the  beginning 
of  the  realization  of  his  ambitions.  He  can  remember 
no  hardships,  enroute,  equal  to  some  with  which  he  had 
to  contend  in  later  life. 

On  his  arrival,  Mr.  Buck  began  work  at  placer  mining, 
receiving  six  dollars  per  day  for  his  services.  His  pay 
was  in  gold  dust,  the  only  medium  of  exchange  known 
to  that  camp  that  winter.  Provisions  became  very 
scarce  before  spring  and  prices  accordingly  advanced. 
At  one  time  the  men  were  paying  one  dollar  and  thirty- 
five  cents  a  pound  for  flour  and  one  dollar  a  pound  for 
rice.  Salt  could  not  be  had  at  any  price.  A  newspaper 
sold  for  a  dollar,  and  a  messenger  charged  a  dollar 
for  every  letter  he  carried  in  or  out.  When  the  longed- 
for  spring  finally  arrived,  Mr.  Buck  with  his  worldly 
goods  strapped  to  his  back,  walked  to  Helena  by  way 
of  the  site  that  is  now  Butte.  In  Helena,  he  worked  at 
placer  mining  throughout  the  summer  and  autumn.  He 
was  present  when  the  first  step  toward  law  and  order 
was  emphatically  taken.  An  unusually  harrowing  mur- 
der had  been  committed.  The  culprit  was  tried  by  a 
jury  of  miners  appointed  for  the  occasion.  He  admitted 
his  guilt  and  was  given  one  hour  in  which  to  arrange 
his  worldly  affairs  before  meeting  death  on  the  scaffold. 
In  such  manner  were  the  rights  of  man  protected  in  the 
early  days  of  Montana. 

In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  Mr.  Buck  went  to 
California  Gulch,  near  the  present  location  of  Black- 
foot  City,  where  he  mined  until  October  of  1886  before 
going  to  Lincoln  Gulch  where  he  purchased  his  first 
mine.  During  the  four  years  in  which  he  worked  his 
own  mine  he  was  able  to  accumulate  some  little  means. 
In  1870,  the  property  being  worked  out,  he  sold  the 
water  rights  and  pushed  on  to  Cedar  Creek,  Missoula 
county.  There  he  was  joined  by  three  brothers,  Henry, 
Fred  and  George.  Together  they  built  boats  and  floated 
down  the  Blackfoot  river  to  the  timber  country,  where 
they  rip-sawed  the  trees  into  boards,  carrying  many  a 
load  back  to  some  mining  claim  or  camp.  These  boards 
sold  for  twenty-four  cents  per  foot,  board  measure,  the 
brothers  often  earning  as  much  as  forty  dollars  a  day, 
and  the  work  lasting  for  more  than  sixty  days.  The 
oldest  brother,  George,  in  the  meantime  engaged  in 
mining.  The  other  brothers,  Amos,  Henry  and  Fred, 
joined  George  at  Camp  67,  where  each  of  them  pur- 
chased an  interest  in  the  mine.  In  1871  Amos  Buck 
was  called  to  Bitter  Root  valley  on  business  and  so 
pleased  was  he  with  the  strip  of  garden  land  and  its 
future  prospects,  that  four  years  later,  when  the  brothers 
were  able  to  dispose  of  their  mine  to  advantage,  they 
settled  in  the  Bitter  Root,  locating  in  Stevensville,  where 
they  established  the  mercantile  house  that  today  is  so 
well  known.  It  is  now  not  only  the  oldest  but  the 
largest  firm  of  its   kind  in  the  community. 

The  Buck  brothers  had  been  in  Stevensville  scarcely 
two  years  when  the  trouble  with  the  Nez  Perces  Indians 
reached  its  culmination.     The  battle  commenced  on  the 


TAaZ:.rt^7S  /^. 


£'^/    ^!^  £' ^ i^rf'liirrns    -^'JD-: 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


931 


ninth  day  of  August,  1877.  The  women,  children  and 
personal  property  were  so  far  as  possible  sent  from  the 
town  to  Fort  Owen,  all  of  Mr.  Buck's  merchandise  being 
removed  by  wagon.  The  Indian  band  outnumbered 
many  times  the  small  company  of  soldiers  reinforced  by 
the  brave  citizens  of  Stevensville.  Among  these  citizens, 
Amos  Buck  was  one  of  the  leaders.  During  the  twenty 
hours  of  hot  conflict  he  alone  fired  thirty-live  shots. 
For  a  time  the  Indians  had  the  white  men  surrounded 
in  Big  Hole  Gulch  and  the  outcome  looked  dubious. 
However,  the  discipline  of  the  soldiers  under  General 
Gibbons,  together  with  the  determined  efforts  of  the 
long-sufifering  men  of  Stevensville,  finally  won  the  day; 
another  instance  of  right  against  might.  Sixty-nine 
white  men,  many  of  them  settlers  who  had  come  to 
Montana  to  find  homes  for  their  families,  lost  their 
lives  in  this  bloody  battle.  The  Indians  fled  in  dismay, 
after  leaving  more  than  two  hundred  of  their  braves 
on  the  field.  The  best  account  of  this — the  last  stand 
of  the  Nez  Perces  Indians  was  written  by  Mr.  Buck 
himself,  and  now  remains  on  file  in  Volume  VII  of  the 
Montana  Historical  Society.  His  activity  in  the  pro- 
tection of  Stevensville,  added  much  to  the  already 
growing  popularity  of  the  young  man,  and  time  has 
proved  that  the  confidence  of  his  fellow  citizens  was  not 
misplaced. 

In  the  autumn  of  1905,  Mr.  Buck  was  chosen  by  the 
Republicans  of  his  district  to  represent  Stevensville  and 
vicinity  in  the  state  legislature.  While  in  the  assembly 
he  fathered  the  bill  naming  Ravalli  county  and  intro- 
duced the  one  creating  Sanders  county  and  naming  it 
for  the  worthy  general  whose  courage  had  done  much 
for    Montana. 

In  fraternal  circles,  Mr.  Buck  is  again  a  leader,  having 
filled  all  of  the  chairs  in  the  Masonic  blue  lodge  and 
in  the  Odd  Fellows  of  Stevensville.  It  was  largely  due 
to  his  efforts  that  the  fund  was  raised  for  establishment 
of  the  prosperous  manual-training  high  school  which 
is  so  important  to  the  youth  of  the  city. 

Amos  Buck,  during  his  young  manhood  succeeded 
in  winning  for  his  wife,  Miss  Rosa  V.  Knapp,  of  Albion, 
Michigan.  Even  in  matrimony  the  fates  seemed  to 
favor  him.  Mrs.  Buck  is  the  daughter  of  Jared  Knapp, 
of  New  York  state,  who  in  his  younger  days  settled  in 
Michigan  and  became  one  of  her  wealthy  agriculturists. 
Personally,  she  is  a  woman  of  culture  and  education, 
a  graduate  of  Albion  College,  class  of  1878.  Their  only 
child,  Charles  Buck,  has  now  completed  the  course 
offered  by  the  Montana  State  University  and  is  now 
department  manager  in  his  father's  establishment  at 
Stevensville. 

While  Amos  Buck  is  a  very  successful  merchant  his 
interests  are  much  too  large  to  be  confined  within  the 
four  walls  of  any  mercantile  establishment.  He  owns 
large  tracts  of  mineral  and  ranch  lands  not  to  mention 
his  city  realty.  The  orchard  industry  of  his  state  has 
not  escaped  him.  In  person,  he  planted  the  first  Mc- 
intosh apple  trees  in  Montana.  These  are  now  more 
than  thirty-five  years  of  age  and  are  one  of  the  attrac- 
tions of  Stevensville,  as  they  did  so  much  toward  proving 
to  the  doubting,  another  great  possibility  of  the  Montana 
soil.  One  of  Mr.  Buck's  favorite  titles  is  that  of  "father 
of  the  red  Mcintosh,"  bestowed  upon  him  by  the 
nurserymen  of  the  state. 

Now  that  their  days  of  strenuous  labor  are  over  and 
the  reward  has  come,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Buck  spend  much 
time  in  travel.  Their  favorite  mode  of  pastime,  how- 
ever, is  journeying  overland,  not  with  a  four-yoke  ox 
team  but  in  their  powerful  automobile. 

David  Fratt.  One  of  the  largest  individual  cattle 
owners  in  the  state  of  Montana,  and  a  man  who  had 
been  closely  identified  with  the  financial  interests  of 
this  section  of  the  country  for  a  number  of  years,  was 
David  Fratt,  of  Billings,  an  excellent  example  of  the 
class  of  men  who  came  to  Yellowstone  Valley  as  pio- 
voi.  n— 8 


neers  and  achieved  success  solely  through  their  own 
efforts.  Mr.  Fratt  was  born  in  Albany  county,  New 
York,  December  27,  1840,  and  was  a  son  of  Jonathan 
and  Mary  (Turner)  Fratt,  farming  people  of  the  Em- 
pire state,  and  on  his  father's  side  of  the  family  of 
German  descent,  while  his  mother's  people  were  na- 
tives of  England.  Mr.  Fratt  was  the  youngest  of  his 
parents'  five  children,  and  all  are  now  deceased. 

Jonathan  Fratt  followed  the  occupation  of  farming 
in  New  York  state  until  1846,  and  in  that  year  moved 
to  the  territory  of  Wisconsin  as  a  pioneer,  settling  in 
the  vicinity  of  Burlington,  Racine  county,  where  he 
spent  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  agricultural  pursuits, 
and  where  his  death  occurred  in  his  sixty-eighth  year, 
his  wife  passing  away  when  sixty-two.  David  was  but 
six  years  of  age  when  he  accompanied  his  parents  to 
the  new  territory,  and  his  education  was  secured  in  the 
primitive  district  school,  the  greater  part  of  his  time, 
however,  being  spent  in  assisting  his  father  to  clear 
and  cultivate  a  farm  from  the  wilderness  of  the  new 
country.  He  remained  at  home  until  May,  1864,  when 
he  decided  to  go  to  the  territory  of  Idaho,  and  accord- 
ingly took  a  train  to  Dunleith,  Illinois,  and  crossed 
the  Mississippi  to  Dubuque,  Iowa,  on  a  ferry.  From 
there  he  went  by  rail  on  the  Dubuque,  Fort  Dodge  & 
Western  Railroad,  now  a  part  of  the  Illinois  Central 
system,  to  Waterloo,  Iowa,  the  western  terminus  of 
tl'ie  line,  and  from  that  point  continued  his  journey 
with  an  ox-team  in  company  with  a  large  party  of 
emigrants.  From  Omaha  the  party  proceeded  along 
the  north  side  of  the  Platte  river,  and  opposite  Scott's 
Bluffs  they  were  attacked  by  Indians,  who  killed  one 
member  of  the  company  and  wounded  another,  be- 
sides stealing  a  portion  of  the  stock.  When  they 
reached  Red  Bluff  the  party  left  the  Platte,  having 
changed  their  minds  and  decided  to  come  to  Montana 
instead  of  Idaho,  proceeded  to  the  Sweet  Water  river 
via  the  old  California  trail  of  1849,  and  went  thence 
up  the  river  to  South  Pass  and  by  Lander's  cutoff  to 
Eagle  Rock  on  Snake  river,  in  Idaho.  From  that 
point  they  followed  the  old  Salt  Lake  trail  to  Virginia 
City,  where  they  arrived  in  September  1864,  the  com- 
pany there  disbanding.  When  this  party  left  Waterloo, 
Iowa,  there  were  seventy-five  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren in  the  company,  and  now  the  only  ones  known 
to  be  living  are  Mrs!  J.  E.  Morse,  of  Dillon,  Montana, 
and  Mrs.  William  Carter,  of  Dillon,  who  was  Annie 
Selway  and  was  a  child  accompanying  her  parents. 
Soon  after  the  disbandment  of  the  company  Mr.  Fratt 
removed  to  Confederate  Gulch,  where  during  the  sum- 
mer of  1865  he  was  engaged  in  mining,  and  subse- 
quently was  the  first  man  to  operate  a  threshing  ma- 
chine in  that  part  of  Montana.  In  187 1  he  turned  his 
attention  to  stockgrowing,  and  he  continued  to  follow 
this  line  in  that  vicinity  until  1878,  when  he  moved  over 
the  range  to  Shields  river,  and  in  1882  moved  to  the 
Musselshell  river  valley,  where  he  maintained  large 
ranches  and  conducted  a  business  that  was  excelled 
by  few  in  the  state.  His  faith  in  the  future  of  Mon- 
tana had  been  demonstrated  by  investing  in  large  ranch 
properties  all  over  the  state,  and  the  general  supervi- 
sion of  these  tracts  occupied  the  greater  part  of  his  at- 
tention. He  made  his  home,  however,  in  Billings,  and 
had  a  handsome  residence  at  No.  205  North  Twenty- 
ninth  street.  He  was  stock  commissioner  for  Yellow- 
stone county  for  twelve  or  fourteen  years,  but  in  191 1 
resigned  from  this  office.  He  was  one  of  the  organ- 
izers and  principal  stockholders  of  the  Yellowstone 
National  Bank,  of  which  he  was  vice-president  for  a 
number  of  years,  and  in  1908  was  one  of  the  or- 
ganizers of  the  Merchants  National  Bank  of  Billings, 
and  was  a  director  in  this  institution  at  the  time  of  his 
death.  His  political  belief  was  that  of  the  Republican 
party,  but  he  never  sought  public  preferment.  The 
success  which  attended  his  efforts  was  the  result  of 
perseverance,    energy    and    ability,    directed    along    the 


932 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


proper  channels,  combined  with  absolute  integrity  in 
the  enterprises  to  which  he  gave  his  attention.  He  was 
highly  esteemed  as  one  of  the  pioneers  of  this  section, 
and  honored  and  respected  throughout  the  county  and 
state. 

Mr.  Fratt  was  united  in  marriage  in  1888  to  Mrs. 
Kate  Armour,  who  was  born  in  the  state  of  New 
Jersey. 

His  death  occurred  on  the  19th  of  March,  1912,  at 
his  residence  in  Billings.  Thus  another  one  of  the 
grand  old  pioneers  of  Montana  has  gone  to  his  reward, 
but  his  memory  will  be  long  cherished  by  a  host  of 
friends  and  admirers. 

George  F.  White,  prominent  in  Twin  Bridges  since 
1889,  was  born  in  Spanish  Fork,  Utah,  on  November 
29,  1858.  He  is  the  son  of  Peter  and  Susan  M.  (Terry) 
White.  The  father  was  a  native  of  the  Keystone 
state,  born  and  reared  there,  coming  to  the  west  in 
1849.  He  spent  some  years  in  Utah,  but  Montana 
represented  his  home  during  the  later  years  of  his 
life.  He  followed  blacksmithing  and  mining  while  in 
the  west,  and  lived  through  the  most  vivid  pioneer 
stage  known  to  western  life,  and  was  well  and  favor- 
ably known  in  this  section  of  the  country,  his  life 
being  marked  by  his  many  deeds  of  charity,  a  trait 
which  was  one  of  his  strongest  characteristics.  He 
died  in  August,  1886,  when  he  was  sixty-three  years  of 
age,  and  is  buried  at  Rochester,  Montana.  The  wife 
and  mother,  who  was  a  native  of  Canada,  met  and 
married  Mr.  White  in  Utah,  the  ceremony  being  per- 
formed at  Salt  Lake  City.  She  still  survives,  and  is 
at  present  living  in  California.  Eight  children  were 
born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  White,  of  which  number  George 
F.  was  the  second  born.  Three  of  the  sons  besides 
George  F.  are  residents  of  Montana,  as  follows :  Henry 
is  a  resident  of  Rochester,  Parshall  E.  is  married  and 
lives  five  miles  from  Anaconda,  where  he  is  engaged 
in  the  hotel  business ;  he  was  born  in  Alder  Gulch  in 
1865.  Ira  J.,  who  is  also  married,  lives  at  McArty, 
Madison    county,    Montana. 

Mr.   White,  as  a  boy  in   his  parents'  home,  lived  at 
Spanish    Fork    until    he    was    about    six   years    of    age, 
at  which  time  the  family  removed  to  Montana.     They 
made   the  trip   in   the   primitive  mode  of   travelling   in 
those  early  days,  and  arriving  at  Fort  Bridger,  Wyom- 
ing, wintered  there,  in  the  spring  moving  on  to  Mon- 
tana, reaching  Virginia  City  in  the  earlv  summer.     Mr. 
White  has  since  that  time  been  a  resident  of  the  state, 
and  has  with  the  passing  years  done  his  full  share  to 
the  making  of  the  state.     Public  school  advantages   in 
Montana    in    his    boyhood    days    were   noticeable    prin- 
cipally  by   their   non-existence,    and    as    a   consequence 
such   education   as   Mr.   White   received  was   the   result 
of  his   own   ambition   and   initiative.      He   was    fortun- 
ately of  a  persevering  and  inquiring  nature,  and  those 
characteristics    have    enabled    him    to    acquire    a    fair 
education— even    surpassing    that    which    other    youths 
attained  with  decidedly  better  advantages.     Mr.   White 
has    always    been    a    devotee    of    good    literature,    and 
reading  is  one  of  his  principal  pleasures— a  fact  which 
has  been  of  immense  advantage  to  him  in  the  pursuit 
of  knowledge.     The  first  position  he  filled  as  a  boy  in 
any   earning   capacity   was    at   work    in   a    placer   mine, 
and  he   followed   the  work   for   about   five   vears.      He 
then    engaged    m    burning    charcoal    by    contract,    also 
did    some    contract   building    for    the    Hecla    Company. 
He_  was  thus  occupied  for  a  period  of  two  vears,  after 
which  he  again  turned  his  attention  to  mining,  in  which 
he  continued   for   seven  years.     In    1889,   following  his 
second  mmmg  experience,    Mr.   White   engaged   in   the 
mercantile  business  in  Twin  Bridges,  and  he  has  been 
here   since   that   time,   barring  a   seven   year   period   in 
which  he  withdrew  from  his  mercantile  interests  partly 
and  engaged  in  ranching  and  stock  raising  in  Madison 
county.     He  eventually  returned  to  Twin  Bridges  and 


resumed   his    old   business,   and   he   is   now    conducting 
an  immensely  popular  general  merchandise  business. 

Mr.  White  is  one  of  the  prosperous  and  popular 
men  of  this  section  of  the  country,  and  is  as  highly 
esteemed  for  his  qualities  of  good  citizenship  as  for 
his  general  amiability.  He  is  a  Democrat,  and  at  one 
time  was  especially  active  in  the  interests  of  the  party, 
but  of  later  years  his  ever  growing  business  interests 
have  detracted  in  a  measure  from  his  activities  along 
those  lines.  He  was  a  member  of  the  state  legislature 
in  1901  and  1902,  and  while  a  member  of  that  body 
was  the  instigator  of  a  number  of  reforms  now  in 
efifect  in  Montana.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic 
fraternity,  but  other  than  that  has  no  fraternal  affilia- 
tions, and  is  not  a  member  of  any  church,  although  he 
regards  them  all  with  manifest  respect  and  courtesy. 
Mr.  White  is  an  ardent  sportsman,  and  is  especially 
fond  of  horses.  He  is  also  devoted  to  automobiling, 
and  in  1910  he  made  an  overland  trip  in  his  car  from 
Twin  Bridges  to  San  Diego,  California.  He  was 
accompanied  on  the  trip  by  his  wife  and  three  sons, 
and  they  visited  every  town  between  the  two  points 
which  their  route  touched.  The  trip  was  unattended 
by  any  misfortunes  or  untoward  adventures,  and  will 
long  be  remembered  by  them  as  one  of  their  most 
pleasing  experiences.  Mr.  White  is  enthusiastic  in 
his  views  of  the  future  of  Montana,  and  says  her 
prospects  are  brighter  than  those  of  any  other  state  in 
the  union,  barring  none.  He  has  made  numerous  trips 
through  the  west  in  search  of  a  business  location,  but 
he  avers  that  the  more  he  saw,  the  greater  became  his 
conviction  that  Montana  could  not  be  improved  upon  in 
the  way  of  opportunities.  Thus  he  has  continued  here, 
content  to  be  a  part  of  the  busy  life  of  the  northwest, 
and  secure  in  his  belief  in  the  continued  prosperity  of 
the  country. 

On  ]\Iarch  31,  1891,  Mr.  White  was  united  in  mar- 
riage at  Butte  City,  Montana,  with  Annie  Miles,  the 
daughter  of  George  W.  and  Adelaide  J.  Miles,  for- 
merly of  Kansas  City,  Missouri.  They  have  three 
sons :  George  M.,  who  is  associated  in  the  business 
with  his  father,  passed  through  the  public  schools  and 
is  a  graduate  of  the  San  Diego  Normal  College,  and 
the  two  younger,  Irving  J.  and  Lockett  C,  are  botli 
attending    school. 

Joseph  Carl  Keppler.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
business  careers  of  Montana  has  been  that  of  the  oldest 
and  the  first  jeweler  of  the  state.  The  profession  of  gold 
and  silversmith  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  the  world,  rank- 
ing with  the  artificer  in  bronze  and  iron  of  early  Bibli- 
cal times.  But  so  intimately  is  the  coining  of  money 
associated  with  the  production  of  the  precious  metals  of 
gold  and  silver  that  the  mint  seems  to  have  a  more 
appropriate  and  natural  place  at  the  mines  than  the 
establishment  of  a  manufacturing  jeweler.  But  some 
of  the  first  inhabitants  of  Montana  the  men  who  made 
the  first  lucky  strikes  in  the  mines,  brought  part  of 
their  findings  to  this  pioneer  jeweler  and  had  it  wrought 
into  shapes  of  service  and  adornment. 

Few  men  would  have  more  interesting  reminiscences 
of  that  early  period  in  the  history  of  this  state  than 
Joseph  Carl  Keppler,  of  Anaconda,  the  first  regular 
jeweler  who  followed  the  inrush  of  population  to  this 
region.  He  has  had  an  active  business  career  here  for 
upwards  of  half  a  century,  and  has  long  held  the  most 
prominent  place  in  that  "line,  and  is  also  honored  as 
one  of  the  sterling  citizens  who  have  contributed  to 
the  making  of  the  Treasure  state. 

A  native  of  Germany,  Joseph  Carl  Keppler  was  born 
on  the  loth  of  March,  1844,  and  attended  the  schools 
of  his  fatherland  until  he  was  fourteen  years  old.  At 
that  time  he  accompanied  his  parents  on  their  immi- 
gration to  America  and  settlement  in  the  old  town  of 
Galena,  Illinois.  There  he  began  learning  the  trade 
of  jeweler  and  watchmaker.     His  employer  was  J.  W. 


^^t^y^ 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


933 


Safely,  who  was  also  identified  with  Ulysses  S.  Grant 
in  different  enterprises  at  Galena,  and  the  young  ap- 
prentice came  to  know  quite  well  that  unpretentious 
and  not  very  successful  business  man  who  in  a  few 
years  was  the  commander  in  chief  of  the  greatest  army 
of  the  world  and  later  became  president  of  the  country 
which  he  did  so  much  to  preserve. 

In  1861  young  Keppler  went  west  to  Denver,  where 
he  finished  his  apprenticeship  and  in  three  years  was 
graduated  as  a  proficient  jeweler  and  watchmaker.  He 
was  then  twenty  years  old,  and  with  the  spirit  of  youth 
and  the  pioneer  he  started  for  Montana,  driving  an  ox 
team  overland  and  arriving  in  this  almost  wilderness  in 
1864.  Bannack  was  his  first  location,  where  he  was  in 
business  for  himself  two  years.  He  then  established 
a  pioneer  jeweler's  shop  in  Virginia  City,  and  did 
much  manufacturing  of  the  native  metals  on  the  special 
orders  of  his  customers.  This  was  a  unique  Ijne  of  busi- 
ness such  as  probably  few  living  gold  or  silversmiths 
in  the  country  ever  engaged  in.  In  the  spring  of  1868 
he  returned  to  Bannack,  which  was  his  home  and 
place  of  business  for  the  next  ten  years. 

In  1878  Mr.  Keppler  moved  his  business  to  Glendale. 
He  had  been  successful  in  his  previous  ventures,  but 
here  he  laid  the  foundation  of  his  permanent  prosperity. 
When  he  left  there  he  had  among  his  general  property 
several  thousand  dollars  in  gold  dust.  The  country  was 
then  infested  by  highwaymen  and  road  agents,  and  to 
insure  the  safety  of  this  treasure  he  engaged  two  men 
as  guards  for  his  wagon.  In  the  spring  of  1884  Mr. 
Keppler  moved  to  Anaconda,  the  city  with  which  he 
has  since  been  identified  as  business  man  and  citizen. 
From  the  narrow  scope  and  meager  stock  of  his  busi- 
ness in  the  early  years  he  developed  his  enterprise  in 
keeping  with  the  advance  of  the  state,  and  has  con- 
ducted one  of  the  very  best  and  largest  concerns  of  the 
kind  in  the  state.  No  man  has  better  deserved  success 
than  Mr.  Keppler,  and  his  distinction  as  the  oldest 
jeweler  of  Montana  is  not  the  chief  among  his  claims 
to  honor  and  esteem. 

During  the  '70s  President  Hayes  appointed  Mr.  Kepp- 
ler postmaster  of  Glendale,  and  at  the  request  of  the 
business  men  of  the  town  he  continued  to  hold  the 
office  during  the  succeeding  administration.  He  was 
also  appointed  postmaster  of  Anaconda,  and  served 
four  years.  Mr.  Keppler  was  one  of  the  incorporators 
of  the  town  of  Anaconda,  and  served  among  the  first 
aldermen.  His  home  is  one  of  the  best  in  the  city, 
and  he  owns  valuable  business  property  and  is  also 
heavily  interested  in  gold  mines  of  the  state.  All  of 
his  prosperity  has  been  the  result  of  his  own  char- 
acter and  ability,  for  it  will  be  remembered  that  he 
began  life  when  only  a  boy  in  years,  with  the  diffi- 
culties of  a  new  language  and  a  new  country  to  contend 
with.  He  is  prominent  in  Masonry  and  the  Eastern 
Star,  and  is  called  the  father  of  the  Anaconda  Masons, 
being  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  first  lodge  in 
this  city.  He  is  also  affiliated  with  the  Elks,  the  Odd 
Fellows,  and  the  Knights  of  Pythias. 

Mr.  Keppler's  first  wife,  who  was  Miss  Clara  Kirk- 
Patrick,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  died  at  Dillon,  Mon- 
tana, in  1890.  Of  her  five  children,  four  are  deceased, 
and  Eugene  Robert  is  an  engineer  for  the  A.  C.  M. 
Company  of  this  city.  In  1894  Mr.  Keppler  married 
Mrs.  Martha  Haning,  of  New  Brunswick,  Canada.  They 
have  no  children. 

Mr.  Keppler's  parents  were  Joseph  and  Christine 
(Funke)  Keppler,  both  of  whom  are  now  deceased 
and  their  final  resting  place  is  at  Galena,  Illinois,  where 
they  settled  on  coming  to  America.  Their  eight  chil- 
dren are  named  as  follows :  Michael,  a  mine  owner  at 
Galena;  Sophia,  wife  of  Mr.  Nick  Roth,  of  Galena; 
Anna  Mary,  the  wife  of  John  Smith,  of  Dubuque,  Iowa ; 
Valentine,  who  died  at  Dubuque,  May  22,  191 1;  Joseph 
C.,  the  next  in  the  family;  John,  a  resident  of  Gutten- 
berg,  Iowa;  Helena,  the  wife  of  John  Bautsch,  of  Den- 


ver, Colorado;  and  Elizabeth,  the  widow  of  Benjamin 
Neynes,  who  was  a  farmer  at  Creighton,  Nebraska, 
where  she  died  June,  1912. 

Henry  Elling,  in  his  life  time  one  of  the  most  loyal 
and  public  spirited  citizens  to  whom  Montana  lays  claim, 
was  born  in  Germany,  the  date  of  his  nativity  having 
been  the  9th  of  December,  1842.  Both  his  parents  died 
before  he  had  reached  the  age  of  fifteen  years  and  at  that 
time  he  immigrated,  with  a  still  younger  brother,  to 
the  United  States,  proceeding  direct  to  Missouri,  where 
an  older  brother  had  previously  settled.  His  first  posi- 
tion in  this  country  was  in  a  mercantile  house  where 
he  received  the  meagre  salary  of  six  dollars  a  month 
and  board.  In  1861  he  removed  to  Leavenworth,  Kan- 
sas, and  in  the  following  year  located  in  Denver,  Colo- 
rado, in  which  latter  city  he  worked  as  salesman  in  a 
clothing  house  until  1864.  In  that  year  he  decided  to 
launch  out  into  the  business  world  on  his  own  account 
and  accordingly  purchased  a  stock  of  goods  which  he 
brought  to  Virginia  City  by  team,  opening  a  store  here 
in  October.  Subsequently,  when  Last  Chance  Gulch, 
now  Helena,  burst  forth  as  the  newest  Eldorado  of 
the  west,  he  secured  a  partner  and  removed  his  busi- 
ness to  that  place,  where  he  established  headquarters 
in  a  little  log  house,  with  a  saw-dust  floor.  He  was 
tremendously  successful  at  first,  but  later  lost  all  he 
had  made  and  was  obliged  to  close  out  his  stock,  after 
which  he  went  east  for  a  short  period. 

He  paid  off  all  his  debts,  secured  a  new  stock  of 
goods  and  started  all  over  again  in  Nebraska  City, 
then  the  supply  point  for  the  freighting  outfits  of  the 
west.  For  a  time  he  was  successful  there  but  when 
the  supply  point  changed  to  Omaha  he  was  once  more 
obliged  to  give  up,  this  time  with  a  large  stock  of 
goods  on  his  hands.  He  then  returned  to  Virginia 
City  and  here  it  would  seem  the  tide  of  his  fortunes 
turned,  for  he  was  eminently  successful  from  the  very 
beginning.  In  1873  he  opened  a  banking  house  and 
from  that  time  on  his  success  was  insured.  He  was  a 
natural  born  financier  and  with  the  passage  of  time 
became  the  richest  man  in  Madison  county.  Through 
his  banking  interests  he  became  interested  in  many 
financial  and  mercantile  institutions,  including  a  num- 
ber in  other  parts  of  Madison  county.  In  1894  he  was 
made  president  of  the  Commercial  Exchange  Bank  at 
Bozeman,  and  after  getting  it  in  good  running  order 
he  assumed  charge  of  the  Carbon  County  Bank,  at  Red 
Lodge,  as  its  president.  Later  he  was  made  a  di- 
rector in  the  State  National  Bank  in  Miles  City  and 
about  that  time  also  secured  stock  in  the  National 
Bank  at  Big  Timber  and  in  the  Bank  of  Fergus  County 
at  Lewiston.  In  January,  1898,  he  organized  the  Union 
Bank  &  Trust  Company  of  Helena,  of  which  he  was 
elected  president.  Two  years  earlier  he  had  joined 
the  syndicate  which  purchased  the  Gallatin  Light, 
Power  &  Railway  Company  of  Bozeman,  that  held 
the  street  railway  and  electric  lighting  franchises  of 
the  city.  He  was  a  business  man  of  tremendous 
strength  and  met  with  success  in  all  his  financial  un- 
dertakings. 

Fraternally  Henry  Filing  was  affiliated  with  the  Ma- 
sonic order,  in  which  he  had  passed  through  the  circle 
of  the  York  Rite  branch,  and  he  was  also  affiliated 
with  the  Ancient  Order  of  United  Workmen  and  the 
Benevolent  &  Protective  Order  of  Elks.  While  a  stal- 
wart Republican  in  his  political  allegiance,  he  could 
never  be  prevailed  upon  to  accept  public  office,  al- 
though he  was  at  one  time  urged  to  run  for  governor. 
He  was  at  one  time,  however,  mayor  of  Virginia  City. 

On  July  20,  1870,  he  married  Miss  Mary  B.  Cooley, 
a  native  of  Iowa  and  a  daughter  of  W.  A.  Cooley,  who 
came  to  Madison  county  in  1868.  This  union  was 
prolific  of  ten  children,  three  of  whom  are  deceased, 
in  1912,  namely,  Alice,  Henry  and  Herman.  Those 
living  are :    Helen  K.,  wife  of  Jim  Bowman  and  a  resi- 


934 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


dent  of  San  Francisco,  California;  Henrietta,  wife  of 
P.  H.  Gohn,  of  Pony,  Montana;  Mabel,  now  Mrs.  T. 
G.  Hutt,  of  Kansas  City,  Missouri;  Carlotta,  wife 
of  R.  H.  Fenner  of  Sausahiti,  California;  Karl,  as- 
sociated with  his  brother  Horace  B.  in  the  banking 
business  in  Virginia  City;  and  Harrison  C,  of  Har- 
vard University. 

On  November  14,  1900,  Mr.  Elling  was  summoned 
to  the  life  eternal.  A  man  of  high  impulse,  strong 
moral  fiber,  fine  judgment  and  keen  foresight,  he 
helped  to  build  the  community  in  which  he  lived  and 
it  suffered  an  irreparable  loss  at  the  time  of  his  death. 
There  is  no  perfection  in  human  character,  yet  he  came 
as  near  to  the  most  attractive  ideal  of  such  perfection 
as  any  man  who  has  gathered  about  him  the  affection 
and  admiration  of  his  fellow  men.  He  was  free  from 
a  censorious  spirit  and  was  never  heard  to  utter  an 
unkind  criticism  of  any  one.  His  convictions  were  as 
solid  as  adamant  and  neither  fear  nor  favor  could 
shake  them  from  him,  yet  he  tried  to  estimate  human 
character  in  the  light  of  that  charity  which  "hopeth  all 
things,  which  beareth  all  things,  which  is  not  easily 
provoked,  which  thinketh  no  evil."  He  exercised  a 
commanding  influence  over  men,  not  as  the  result  of  a 
conscious  ambition  or  a  studied  purpose,  but  rather 
from  an  instinctive  homage  the  world  awards  men  of 
exalted  character  and  incorruptible  principles.  He  was 
a  man  swayed  by  a  conscience  enlightened  by  the 
truth  and  spirit  of  God.  His  ambition  to  be  right  and 
do  right  was  the  paramount  incentive,  and  he  counted 
not  the  cost  of  so  noble  an  end. 

A  cherished  memory  is  an  enduring  monument  more 
ineffaceable  than  polished  marble  or  burnished  bronze. 
"To  live  in  the  hearts  we  leave  behind  is  not  to  die." 

Judge  Mortimer  H.  Lott  is  a  pioneer  of  Montana, 
well  known  throughout  Madison  county  and  regarded 
as  the  father  of  Twin  Bridges.  He  it  was  who  laid 
out  the  town,  after  he  had  lived  on  the  land  for  years, 
since  1864,  in  fact,  the  year  in  which  he  squatted  on 
it.  The  present  town  site  was  for  years  his  ranch, 
and  since  the  town  was  organized  Twin  Bridges  has 
been  Judge  Lott's  home.  He  was  the  first  mayor  of 
the  town  and  was  for  years  a  member  of  the  school 
board,  having  resigned  in  191 1,  not  caring  to  feel  the 
responsibilities  of  the  office  longer.  He  was  judge 
of  probate  of  Madison  county  for  years,  and  also  served 
as  county  commissioner.  In  all,  his  life  has  been  one 
of  the  fullest  activity,  and  he  has  been  a  citizen  of 
great  intrinsic  worth  to  the  county  and  city. 

Judge  Lott  was  born  in  Lottville,  Warren  county, 
Pennsylvania,  on  Christmas  day  in  1827.  He  is  the 
son  of  Hewlett  and  Maria  Lott,  of  that  state,  where 
they  passed  their  lives.  His  education  was  represented 
by  early  public  school  training  and  a  special  academic 
course  at  Fredonia,  New  York,  and  until  he  came  west 
he  devoted  himself  to  farming  interests  at  the  Pennsyl- 
vania home.  He  was  thirty  years  old  when  he  de- 
cided to  look  about  him  for  a  western  location  that 
seemed  suitable,  and  in  the  course  of  his  seeking  he 
visited  many  states,  including  Minnesota,  Iowa,  Ne- 
braska and 'Kansas.  He  settled  in  Marshall  county, 
Kansas,  where  he  remained  for  about  two  years,  dur- 
ing which  time  he  was  engaged  in  farming.  He  went 
to  California  Gulch,  Colorado,  from  Kansas,  and  en- 
gaged in  mining  there,  an  occupation  which  held  him 
for  a  few  months,  after  which  he  went  to  New  Mexico, 
his  stay  there  being  represented  by  about  a  year.  He 
next  returned  to  Colorado  and  for  a  short  time  was 
engaged  in  mining  ventures.  On  July  10,  1862,  he 
arrived  in  Montana,  and  on  reaching  Bannack  he  fol- 
lowed mining  for  a  while,  then  went  to  Virginia  City, 
this  state,  and  started  a  store  in  October,  1863,  which 
he  operated  there  for  about  two  years.  His  journey 
to  Montana  was  attended  by  the  most  thrilling  expe- 
riences, and  so  insistent  were  the  attentions  of  the  In- 


dians that  they  barely  escaped  with  their  lives.  His  lit- 
tle party  were  assailed  by  hostile  warriors  at  every 
hand,  and  for  three  days  and  nights  they  dared  not 
sleep.  They  finally  reached  Fort  Bridger  in  a  state  of 
complete  exhaustion,  and  while  the  soldiers  guarded 
their  outfit'  the  travelers  slept  through  from  eleven 
o'clock  in  the  morning  until  four  in  the  next  after- 
noon. The  rest  of  the  journey  was  made  under  escort 
and  they  reached  their  destination  in  safety.  In  1864 
Judge  Lott  squatted  on  the  land  which  represents  the 
present  site  of  Twin  Bridges  and  for  years  he  car- 
ried on  a  ranching  business  here.  He  is  a  pioneer  of 
the  sturdiest  type,  and  has  endured  much  in  the  years 
in  which  he  has  watched  Montana  come  out  from  a 
state  of  semi-civilization  to  that  of  one  of  the  greatest 
commonwealths  of  the  nation.  Much  credit  is  due  to 
him  for  his  labors  in  and  for  the  state,  more  especially 
for  Madison  county.  He  has  built  mile  upon  mile  of 
good  roads  in  the  county,  one  of  the  things  which 
conduce  most  surely  to  settlement  and  advancement. 
He  has  held  many  important  offices  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  affairs  of  the  county  and  of  Twin  Bridges, 
and  is  at  present  a  member  of  the  board  of  aldermen 
of  the  city,  on  which  he  has  served  for  years.  He  is 
now  practically  retired  from  business  of  all  kinds,  his 
office  on  the  board  of  aldermen  being  the  only  public 
appointment  he  holds,  having  resigned  from  all  others, 
or  refused  to  stand  for  re-election.  He  is  a  member  of 
the  Masonic  order,  in  the  blue  lodge,  chapter  and  East- 
ern Star,  and  has  served  his  local  lodges  as  master. 
At  Deer  Lodge,  in  September,  1912,  he  was  elected 
president  of  the   Society  of  Montana   Pioneers. 

In  1882  Judge  Lott  was  united  in  marriage  with 
Melvina  J.  Carson  at  Twin  Bridges.  She  was  for- 
merly from  the  state  of  Iowa.  Two  children  have 
been  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lott :  Maria  L.  is  married 
to  L.  Comfort  and  lives  at  Twin  Bridges,  where  Mr. 
Comfort  is  postmaster;  Mortimer  J.  is  a  student  at 
Parson's  College  in  Fairfield,  Iowa. 

Newton  Budd.  No  class  among  the  American  people 
today  is  entitled  to  more  credit  or  greater  respect  than 
the  hard  pioneers,  who,  leaving  comfort  and  compara- 
tive ease  behind  them,  braved  every  danger  of  the 
untrodden  wilderness,  reducing  it  to  a  state  of  fruit- 
fulness  through  their  unremitting  toil  and  the  exer- 
cise of  a  stupendous  amount  of  labor.  Of  this  class 
was  the  late  Newton  Budd  of  Big  Timber,  in  Sweet- 
grass  county,  one  of  the  Montana  pioneers  of  1864 
and  one  of  her  most  honored  and  respected  citizews. 
He  was  born  on  December  23,  1830,  at  Sharon,  Penn- 
sylvania ;  he  died  at  Big  Timber,  Montana,  on  March 
25,  1905,  and  between  these  milestones  of  time  lie  many 
weary  miles  of  travel  and  many  days  of  hard  work  on 
the  part  of  this  sturdy  pioneer  of  two  states. 

When  Newton  Budd  was  a  young  man  his  parents 
brought  their  family  from  Pennsylvania  into  the  newer 
state  of  Iowa.  They  came  overland  by  wagon,  and 
their  journey  into  the  west  was  attended  by  the  sad 
death  of  the  father  of  the  family.  The  mother  with 
her  goodly  family  was  thereafter  in  a  large  measure 
dependent  upon  the  labors  of  her  eldest  son,  Newton. 
They  completed  the  unhappy  journey  into  Iowa  and 
there  established  the  home  which  had  been  the  dream 
of  the  father.  In  1854  Newton  Budd  married  Miss 
Sarah  Simmons  in  Iowa,  and  to  them  were  born  five 
children,  named  as  follows:  George  S.,  born  in  Iowa, 
in  1857,  and  died  in  1886;  Laura,  born  in  1859  and 
died  in  1888;  Barbara  Terrissa,  born  in  1861  in  Iowa; 
William  H.,  born  in  Iowa  and  now  a  resident  of  Marys- 
ville,  Montana ;  Pearl  M.,  born  in  Montana ;  she  has  been 
twice  married,  her  first  husband  having  been  a  Mr. 
Cavanaugh.  by  whom  she  had  one  son,  Budd  H.  Cav- 
anaugh ;  she  later  married  A.  T.  Kellogg,  and  now 
resides  in  Seattle,  Washington ;  Dick,  bom  February 
18,  1876,  at  Clancy,  Montana. 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


935 


In  1864  Newton  Biidd  left  his  wife  and  three  chil- 
dren in  Iowa,  in  the  town  of  Bellview,  and  made  his 
way  to  Montana,  locating  in  Virginia  City.  For  some 
years  he  followed  mining  and  shared  in  all  the  many 
deprivations  of  the  pioneer  prospector  in  mitamed  Mon- 
tana. After  some  years  he  took  up  a  ranch  at  Lump 
Gulch,  some  miles  from  Clancy,  Montana,  and  there 
he  brought  his  family,  the  two  younger  children  of 
the  house  being  born  there.  At  one  time,  as  the  partner 
of  one  John  Rohrbaugh,  Mr.  Budd  ran  a  stage  line 
from  Helena,  to  Wicjes,  Montana.  In  the  summer  of 
1882,  having  sold  his  ranch  in  Lump  Gulch  to  the 
Halfords,  he  removed  with  his  family  to  a  new  farm 
in  the  Yellowstone  valley,  near  Big  Timber,  and  there 
he  lived  for  seven  years.  In  1889  he  moved  into  the 
town  of  Big  Timber  to  engage  in  the  general  mer- 
chandise trade,  the  hardware  business,  and  in  later 
years,  the  drug  business.  In  1900  he  became  a  part- 
ner of  his  son  (Dick)  in  the  drug  business  at  Big 
Timber,  and  so  continued  for  four  years.  He  was  a 
man  of  excellent  health  and  ceaseless  activity,  and  his 
life  was  a  busy  one,  from  his  boyhood  imtil  its  close. 

Newton  Budd  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Mon- 
tana Pioneers  and  had  served  as  vice  president  of  the 
organization.  In  March,  1905,  he  was  attacked  with 
typhoid-pneumonia  and  his  death  occurred  on  the  25th 
of  that  month.  The  Montana  Daily  Record  of  March 
27th  said  of  him :  "Newton  Budd,  seventy-four  years 
old,  is  dead.  Mr.  Budd  was  one  of  the  oldest  resi- 
dents of  Sweet  Grass  county,  having  come  here  from 
Bellview,  Iowa,  in  the  sixties.  He  was  born  in  Penn- 
sylvania in  1830,  was  married  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
four,  and  raised  a  large  family  of  children.  His  fam- 
ily are  all  grown  now,  one  living  in  Big  Timber  and 
the  others  in  various  other  states.  He  also  leaves  an 
aged  wife.  Mr.  Budd  was  taken  ill  with  pneumonia 
and  sunk  rapidly  until  the  end  came.  He  was  buried 
Sunday  in  the  Big  Timber  cemetery."  The  same  pa- 
per of  March  28th,  said  in  part :  "The  funeral  services 
over  the  remains  of  Mr.  Newton  Budd  were  held  at 
the  Congregational  church  on  Sunday,  Rev.  E.  A.  Cook 
officiating.  The  funeral  was  more  largely  attended  than 
any  previous  similar  occasion  and  the  church  would 
not  accommodate  half  the  people,  great  crowds  stand- 
ing outside  during  the  services.  Interment  was  made 
at  Big  Timber  cemetery." 

Dick  Budd,  the  son  of  Newton  and  Sarah  (Sim- 
mons) Budd,  was  born  on  the  home  ranch  in  Lump 
Gulch,  near  Clancy,  Montana,  on  February  18,  1876. 
From  the  age  of  si.x  he  passed  his  boyhood  on  the 
farm  near  Big  Timber,  attending  the  schools  of  that 
town  up  to  the  age  of  sixteen.  When  he  had  reached 
that  age  he  left  school  to  go  into  the  drug  store  of 
Dr.  W.  E.  Moore  at  Big  Timber,  !and  so  well  did 
he  advance  in  the  work  that  a  few  years  later  he 
bought  a  half  interest  in  the  business.  In  1898  he 
bought  out  Dr.  ;  Moore's  share  and  in  1900  took  his 
father  into  partnership,  disposing  of  the  establish- 
ment after  four  years.  In  1904  Dick  Budd  became 
active  in  politics  in  Sweet  Grass  county,  and  was  elected 
county  treasurer,  assuming  the  'duties  of  the  office  in 
March,  1905.  His  regime  proved  so  satisfactory  to  the 
public  that  he  was  reelected  in  1906,  serving  until 
March,  1909.  In  April  of  that  year  he  moved  to 
Seattle,  Washington,  and  until  September  i,  1912,  was 
connected  with  two  of  the  largest  drug  stores  in  that 
city.  On  September  12,  1912,  he  purchased  the  interest 
of  J.  G.  Tucker  in  the  old  established  Fisher  Drug- 
Company  in  Helena,  and  removed  to  that  city  to  assume 
his  interest  in  the  business. 

Politically  Mr.  Budd  is  a  Republican,  and  his  fraternal 
affiliations  are  with  the  Masonic  order,  the  Knights  of 
Pythias  and  the  Modern  Woodmen  of  America  at  Big 
Timber,    Montana. 

On  June  i,  1898.  Mr.  Budd  was  married  at  Butte, 
Montana,  to  Miss   Mary  Florence   Blake,  the   daughter 


of  John  Blake  of  Big  Timber.  Two  children  have 
been  bom  to  them,  Irene,  October  15,  1899,  and  New- 
ton Dick,  August  7,  1907. 

William  R.  Woods.  In  the  early  6o's  John  R. 
Woods,  with  his  wife  Adeline  Shaffin  Woods,  left  the 
Missouri  town  in  which  he  had  been  born  and  came 
to  what  was  then  an  unsettled  country.  This  word  ap- 
plied to  Montana  at  that  time  in  both  its  meanings,  for 
the  state  was  sparsely  populated  and  Indian  uprisings 
added  to  the  depredations  of  the  lawless  element  in 
the  scanty  white  population  made  existence  decidedly 
unsettled.  The  elder  White  pursued  the  occupations 
of  ranching  and  mining,  then  •  the  only  considerable 
industries  in  this  region,  and  he  experienced  all  the 
phases  of  pioneer  life.  He  lived  in  a  number  of  dif- 
ferent towns  in  the  course  of  his  career  as  a  miner 
and  cattle  man,  including  Bannack,  Diamond  City, 
White  Sulphur  Springs  and  Livingston.  His  faithful 
wife,  the  mother  of  his  two  sons  and  one  daughter, 
died  in  White  Sulphur  Springs  in  1880.  She  was  but 
forty-three  at  the  time  of  her  death.  Her  husband 
survived  her  twenty-two  years,  living  to  the  age  of 
.seventy-six.  He  is  buried  in  Livingston,  where  he 
spent  his  later  years.  The  daughter  Maggie  Woods 
now  lives  in  Red  Lodge,  her  married  name  being  Mrs. 
J.  H.  Liehl.  C.  H.  Sherman,  a  half-brother  of  Wil- 
liam Woods  the  sheriff  of  Fergus  county,  is  in  business 
in  White  Sulphur  Springs. 

It  was  at  Bannack,  Montana,  that  William  R.  Woods 
was  born,  on  the  20th  of  November,  1864.  He  was  the 
middle  one  in  the  family  of  three  in  point  of  age. 
When  he  was  six,  his  parents  left  Bannack  for  the 
more  promising  town  of  Diamond  City,  where  they 
remained  two  years  before  moving  to  White's  Gulch. 
In  1878,  White  Sulphur  Springs  became  their  home, 
and  William  Woods  resided  there  until  1882,  when  he 
moved  to  Fergus  county.  In  that  city,  he  set  up  his 
own  household,  with  Stella  M.  Pyle  as  his  wife.  Her 
parents  are  Marcellus  and  Ruth  Pyle  of  White  Sul- 
phur Springs. 

This  same  town  was  the  place  where  Mr.  Woods  re- 
ceived the  most  of  his  schooling.  He  had  begun  to 
work  on  a  cattle  ranch  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  and) 
from  that  time,  he  earned  his  own  living.  He  worked 
during  the  summer  and  saved  money  to  put  himself 
through  school  in  the  winter.  During  the  entire  time 
in  which  he  worked  for  wages,  he  was  in  the  employ 
of  but  four  cattle  companies.  When  he  came  to  this 
county,  he  went  into  business  independently,  and  in 
1902  he  added  a  livery  establishment  in  Lewistown  to 
his   ranching  interests. 

Always  interested  in  politics,  Mr.  Woods  has  given 
much  time  to  the  interests  of  the  Republican  party 
organization,  and  was  naturally  selected  as  candidate 
for  office.  Under  J.  D.  Waite  he  served  as  deputy 
sheriff  for  a  term  of  four  years,  and  he  is  now  filling 
the  office  of  sheriff.  His  life-long  acquaintance  with 
the  country  and  its  people  render  him  especially  fitted 
for  this  post,  whose  duties  he  discharges  with  fear- 
lessness and   despatch. 

Education  is  a  matter  upon  which  Mr.  Woods  sets 
high  value,  and  those  of  his  eight  children  who  are 
old  enough,  are  enjoying  the  advantages  of  some  of  the 
famous  institutions  of  the  country.  Margaret  is  now 
attending  Obcrlin,  the  first  of  the  schools  across  the 
Alleghanies  to  stand  for  the  culture  which  we  call 
"New  England"  in  spirit,  by  which  is  meant  highest 
standards  of  scholarship  and  character  in  its  students. 
Miss  Gladys  is  at  Valparaiso,  Indiana,  a  school  not  less 
noted  than  Oberlin.  though  of  different  purpose  in  its 
training  as  it  makes  a  specialty  of  the  commercial 
branches.  William,  the  only  son,  is  a  high  school 
graduate,  and  Lucy  is  still  in  high  school.  Mary  and 
Laura  are  in  the  grades,  and  May  is  not  yet  in  school. 
One    daughter,    Stella,   is    married.      Her    home    is    in 


936 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


Evergreen,  Ohio  where  Mr.  Denny  is  a  farmer  of  the 
modern  type,  who  understands  how  to  mal<e  agricul- 
ture a  paying  business.  All  of  the  children  were  born 
in  this   state. 

Mr.  Woods  is  a  member  of  the  Judith  Club,  but 
fraternal  societies  have  no  attractions  for  him.  He 
belongs  to  the  Methodist  church  and  he  is  one  of  the 
rare  men  for  whom  it  is  not  necessary  to  relax  the 
old-time  discipline  of  that  communion,  which  forbids 
the  use  of  liquor  and  tobacco.  For,  remarkable  to 
state  of  anyone  born  and  reared  on  the  frontier,  Mr. 
Woods  has  never  permitted  himself  either  of  these  in- 
dulgences. Mrs.  Woods  is  one  of  the  most  earnest 
and  indefatigable  workers  in  the  church,  and  it  would 
be  difficult  indeed  to  fill  her  place  in  its  ranks. 

Any  sort  of  recreation  which  takes  one  into  the  open 
commends  itself  to  Mr.  Woods,  though  he  confesses 
to  a  preference  for  hunting.  His  hobby  is  roping, 
and  in  this  he  excels.  When  actively  at  work  on  the 
ranch,  he  had  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the 
champions  of  the  district,  which  is  eminently  fitting 
in  one  to  whom  the  range  is  native,  and  whose  heart 
is  in  the  state  and  its  wonderful    future. 

O'DiLLON  B.  Whitford,  M.  D.  Probably  there  is  no 
better  known  nor  more  highly  esteemed  citizen  in 
Butte  than  Dr.  O'Dillon  B.  Whitford,  a  resident  of 
Montana  for  nearly  fifty  years,  and  for  more  than 
thirty-five  years  one  of  Butte's  leading  men  in  the  medi- 
cal profession,  in  the  mining  industry  and  in  public  life. 
Although  he  has  reached  an  age  when  most  men  would 
regard  it  time  to  retire,  he  is  still  engaged  in  the  active 
practice  of  medicine,  having  so  lived  his  long  and  use- 
ful life  that  he  is  in  full  possession  of  his  faculties. 
Dr.  Whitford  was  born  in  the  new  town  of  Wooster, 
Wayne  county,  Ohio,  November  4,  1834,  the  first  child 
born  there,  and  is  a  son  of  Augustus  H.  and  Charlotte 
(Bidwell)  Whitford,  the  father  of  Scotch  stock  and  the 
mother  of  English  descent.  The  families  of  both  had 
come  to  America  in  the  colonial  times,  and  Dr.  Whit- 
ford's  parents  proved  themselves  worthy  descendants 
of  colonists.  They  followed  the  westward  tide  of 
progress,  settling  first  in  Ohio  and  later  moving  to 
Indiana. 

Dr.  Whitford  completed  his  professional  studies  in 
the  Eclectic  College  of  Cincinnati  in  1856,  and  during 
the  following  year  went  to  Denver,  Colorado,  where  he 
was  engaged  in  practice  until  1864.  That  year  was 
characterized  by  Dr.  Whitford's  advent  in  Montana, 
his  first  location  being  at  Virginia  City,  and  after  four 
years  he  went  to  Rochester.  Subsequently,  in  1870, 
he  located  at  Deer  Lodge,  but  in  1876  he  came  to 
Butte,  where  he  has  continued  in  practice  to  the  pres- 
ent time.  For  many  years  Dr.  Whitford  was  largely 
interested  in  mining  operations,  and  from  1864  to 
1868  spent  large  amounts  of  money  in  developing  Ster- 
ling county  land.  From  1868  to  1870  he  belonged  to 
mining  organizations  formed  by  Judge  H.  Z.  Hay-- 
ner,  a  company  which  was  widely  known  and  which 
made  large  sales  of  mining  properties.  In  1872  Dr. 
Whitford  purchased  a  mine  in  Cable,  which  he  de- 
veloped and  in  which  he  was  interested  for  a  time, 
and  subsequently  became  the  owner  of  two  mines  in 
Beaver  Head  county  and  of  the  silver  mine,  "Wan- 
derer," which  he  purchased  in  1876.  He  was  also 
interested  in  the  Meaderville  valley  mines.  In  1868 
Dr.  Whitford  built  the  Miners  Hospital,  of  Butte 
City,  which  was  the  third  he  had  erected  in  the  state, 
the  others  being  at  Virginia  City  and  Rochester,  and 
during  the  four  intervening  years,  1871-1874,  he  was 
surgeon  of  the  penitentiary  at  Deer  Lodge.  In  1870 
he  was  elected  an  alderman  of  Butte,  and  in  1883 
received  the  election  to  the  office  of  mayor,  in  which 
he  served  with  distinction. 

On  November  26,  1854,  Dr.  Whitford  was  married 
to  Miss  Mary  Jane  Tanner,  of  Indiana,  and  they  had 


three  children:  Charles  S.,  born  in  1856,  a  gradu- 
ate of  the  Chicago  Eclectic  College,  and  now  a  prac- 
ticing physician ;  Roseman  Estella,  born  in  1859,  ''t 
Arlington,  Nebraska,  who  died  December  15,  1909; 
and  Mrs.  Henrietta  W.  Comstock,  now  a  resident  of 
the  state  of  Washington.  Mrs.  Whitford  died  at 
Deer  Lodge,  July  4,  1870,  and  the  Doctor  married 
(second),  in  1873,  Mrs.  Susan  Lavina  (Sweeney)  Hol- 
loway,  daughter  of  John  L.  Sweeney,  a  pioneer  of 
Montana,  and  whose  social  graces  and  her  many 
talents  have  been  of  the  greatest  value  to  her  able 
husband.  To  this  union  there  was  born  one  son, 
O'Dillon  B.,  Jr.,  born  in  1874  at  Deer  Lodge,  Mon- 
tana, who  died  at  Butte  in  February,   1891. 

Dr.  Whitford,  as  has  been  before  stated,  is  still  en- 
gaged in  active  practice,  and  is  in  the  best  of  health. 
•  He  reads  and  writes  without  the  use  of  glasses,  and 
his  memory  is  wonderful,  as  is  proven  in  his  having 
committed  to  memory  the  following  speech,  his  latest 
one,  delivered  during  the  summer  of  1912.  He  has 
frequently  spoken  before  large  assemblages  of  pioneers 
and  their  children,  and  was  president  in  1908  of  ihc 
Montana  Pioneers  Society.  The  speech,  which  fol- 
lows, not  only  discloses  the  sterling  principles  of  Dr. 
Whitford's  character,  but  also  shows  the  genial,  kindly 
philosophy  of  a  man  who,  having  lived  among  all 
kind  and  manner  of  men,  has  become  a  faithful  judge 
of  human  nature  apd  still  has  an  abiding  faith  in 
mankind : 

"While  some  of  our  old-timers  have  blazed  diver- 
gent trails,  at  our  annual  reunions  we  meet  to  extend 
the  glad  hand  of  welcome  to  our  unwrinkled-faced 
comrades  who  have  for  years  and  years  delved  into 
the  bowels  of  these  rock-ribbed  mountains  for  the  an- 
ticipated prize  that  has  stimulated  the  prospector  from 
vigorous  manhood  to  declining  age  in  hopes  of  a  re- 
ward for  his  arduous  labor  in  sinking  shafts,  cross- 
cutting,  faults  and  seams,  driving  tunnels  and  follow- 
ing the  trend  of  stringers  to  their  barren  confluent. 
Such  has  been  the  work  of  your  humble  servant  smce 
A.  D.  i860,  in  Colorado  and  Montana.  I  have  been 
within  a  few  feet  of  my  fortune  several  times,  but 
never  quite  deep  enough  to  reach  it.  So  it  has  been 
with  the  majority  of  my  old-time  friends,  whose  cheer- 
ful faces  now  confront  me  with  a  satisfied  look  of 
contentment  that  their  work  has  been  well  done,  their 
mission  performed,  hence  are  ready  at  the  first  call 
of  nature  to  leave  this  mundane  sphere  for  an  end- 
less home.  Why  should  we  not  be?  Have  we  not 
contributed  to  the  wants  of  the  needy,  clothed  the 
naked  and  fed  the  hungry?  Have  we  been  found 
wanting?  Have  we  left  undone  those  things  which 
we  ought  to  have  done?  Have  we  done  those  things 
we  ought  not  to  have  done?  Let  those  who  succeed 
us  in  the  affairs  of  state  pass  judgment  upon  our 
conduct  according  to  our  deeds.  The  oft  repeated 
saying  is  a  true  one  that  'The  pioneer  is  the  van- 
guard of  civilization.'  I  am  a  pioneer  of  Ohio,  In- 
diana, Wisconsin,  Nebraska,  Colorado  and  Montana. 
No  railroads  were  in  any  of  the  states  mentioned 
where  I  lived  when  I  left  them ;  in  fact,  the  first  loco- 
motive and  railroad  track  I  ever  saw  were  at  Silver 
Bow  Junction  when  the  narrow-gauge  was  being  con- 
structed from  Ogden  to  Butte.  During  the  month  of 
April,  1856,  I  left  my  native  and  adopted  states  and 
with  my  first  wife,  who  died  in  Deer  Lodge,  July 
4,  1870,  and  a  son  (now  living  in  Lewiston,  Idaho), 
father,  mother,  five  sisters  and  four  brothers,  equipped 
with  ox-teams  hitched  to  schooner  wagons,  the  only 
mode  of  travel  then,  wended  our  weary  way  towards 
the  setting  sun.  When  within  sixty  miles  of  Council 
Bluffs,  Cass  county,  Iowa,  the  hand  of  death  snatched 
from  our  ever-watchful  mother  a  faultless  husband 
and  father  of  her  ten  devoted  children.  We  dug  his 
grave  on  a  little  grassy  knoll,  improvised  a  crude  cas- 
ket out  of  some  rough   lumber  we   could   spare   from 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


937 


one  of  our  wagons,  into  which  with  our  own  hands 
we  carefully  laid  the  remains  of  the  one  so  dear  to 
us  and  lowered  it  into  the  newly-made  grave,  en- 
closed it  with  a  rough  board  fence,  around  which  the 
bereaved  family  circled  to  take  a  last  sad  farewell. 
As  I  leaned  over  that  homely  fence,  I  imagined  I 
could  see  beneath  that  little  mound  the  noble  face  of 
my  boyhood  days,  wet  with  perspiration,  felling  the 
trees  of  the  forest,  where  I  first  learned  to  lisp  his 
name,  admire  his  genius  and  love  his  virtues.  There 
we  left  him  with  the  requiem  of  the  sighing  winds 
and  roving  Indians  and  resumed  our  journey  west- 
ward. 

"Crossing  the  Missouri  river  between  Council  Bluffs 
and  Omaha,  we  journeyed  twenty-two  miles  farther 
west  to  the  Elkhorn  river  bottoms,  where  we  pre- 
empted lands.  On  the  13th  day  of  October,  just  three 
months  to  a  day  from  the  date  of  the  death  of  our 
father,  our  mother  died  of  a  broken  heart,  grieving 
over  the  loss  of  her  companionable  husband.  Soon 
the  family  ties  were  severed,  drifting  to  different 
parts  of  the  United  States.  Two  sisters  are  bur- 
ied in  Tampa,  Florida,  and  two  in  California;  one 
brother  is  buried  in  Clarkston,  Washington,  one  on  the 
old  homestead  in  Nebraska,  and  one  starved  to  death 
'in  Andersonville  Prison,  his  grave  being  unknown. 
The  surviving  sister  and  a  brother  live  near  Red 
Bluffs,  California,  and  one  in  Montana,  now  boring 
her  pioneers  with  a  doleful  history  of  a  once-happy 
family,  the  majority  of  whom  have  passed  into  the 
unknown,  which  teaches  us  that  the  fate  of  man 
resembles  the  fate  of  nature.  It  is  similarly  depend- 
ent on  natural  laws  and  it  obeys  without  exception 
the  same  stringent  and  inexorable  necessity  which  gov- 
erns all  that  exists.  It  lies  in  the  nature  of  every 
human  being  that  was  born  to  die;  no  one  has  ever 
escaped  that  law.  Death  is  the  surest  calculation  that 
can  be  made  and  the  unavoidable  keystone  to  every  in- 
dividual existence.  The  supplications  of  the  mother, 
the  tears  of  the  wife,  the  despair  of  the  husband, 
cannot  stay  its  hand.  The  natural  laws  are  rude,  un- 
bending powers  which  have  neither  morals  nor  heart. 
No  call  can  awaken  from  the  sleep  of  death;  no  angel 
can  deliver  the  prisoner  from  the  dungeon;  no  hand 
from  the  clouds  reaches  bread  to  the  hungry;  no 
power  above  answers  the  supplications  of  man ;  no 
power  from  above  ever  protected  us  from  the  forces 
of  nature;  where  the  thunderbolt  is  attracted  there  it 
will  strike;  the  path  of  the  cyclone  is  strewn  with 
the  dead  and  the  dying.  The  remorseless  earthquake 
blots  out  the  lives  of  many  of  our  good  people  by  flood 
or  fire,  regardless  of  the  supplication  to  the  unknown 
to  stay  the  hand  of  death.  Change  and  decay,  life  and 
death  follow  each  other  according  to  nature  in  such 
rapid  succession  that  we  have  scarcely  time  to  look 
around  us   ere  we  drop   into  eternity. 

"As  I  gaze  upon  the  features  of  these  sturdy  pi- 
oneers. I  can  regretfully  perceive  the  silver  chord  is 
loosening,  the  golden  bowl  is  breaking.  The  inevita- 
ble end  that  awaits  every  one  of  the  old-timers  of 
the  Treasure  state  is  fast  approaching.  But  a  little 
while  the  morning  and  evening  papers  will  tell  the 
story  of  the  last  survivor— of  his  jovial  personality, 
his  many  kindly  acts,  his  deeds  of  valor  and  his  er- 
rands of  mercy. 

"When  the  pioneers  assembled  on  the  old  familiar 
stamping-ground  (Alder  Gulch)  several  years  ago, 
I  attempted  to  address  them,  but  on  account  of  ill 
health  then  I  was  unable  to  do  so,  and  although  the 
address  was  published  in  the  biographical  sketches 
in  the  'History  of  Montana,'  if  you  will  indulge  me 
I  will  recapitulate  the  closing  part,  as  a  few  of  the 
faces  I  see  here  were  present  there.  After  detailing 
the  hardships,  trials  and  tribulations  of  the  early  pi- 
oneers, I  closed  as  follows : 


Thus  day  after  day,  and  year  after  year, 

Have  our  joys  been  mingled  with  our  sorrows  and 
tears ; 
And  today,  my  old  friends,  not  in  the  future  to  fear 

We  have  issued  a  roll-call  to  see  how  many  are  here. 

As  time  rolls  on  from  year  to  year, 

Let  us  continue  counting  the  number  still  here; 
When  the  last  one  is  counted  by  himself  alone, 

May  he  do  so  unmindful  of  those  who  are  gone. 

For  what  is  a  life  but  a  ripple  at  sea 
Compared  with  the  thousands  that  are  yet  to  be 

To  the  millions  unborn  who  in  time  will  appear 
And  travel  the  blazed  trails  of  the  old  pioneer? 

Why  think  of  it,  friends,  a  million  years  hence 
What  an  atom  we  will  be  in  the  measureless  expanse! 

What  thought,  what  sense  and  what  reason  can  there 
be 
In  predicting  a  future  that  no  one  can  see? 

"As  well  teach  that  the  mind  of  man  was  in  exist- 
ence before  it  was  born.  Let  us  be  content  with  the 
past,  present  and  future,  as  worshiping  a  phantom  can 
make  us  no  better. 

"As  we  have  done  in  the  past,  I  trust  we  will  con- 
tinue to  the  end  and  employ  our  faculties  to  augment 
the  happiness  of  the  meritorious  and  assist  as  much  as 
we  possibly  can,  the  worthy  and  friendless  in  alleviating 
their  distress  and  their  sorrow.  Thus  will  we  fulfill 
the  inherent  mission  of  the  old  timer,  at  whose  de- 
mise, and  upon  whose  headstone  should  be  inscribed 
in  letters  of  gold :  'Here  beneath  this  little  mound 
rests  in  peace  the  remains  of  one  of  the  noblest  of 
men,  whose  friendship  and  advice,  if  appreciated  by 
the  living,  will  be  as  durable  as  the  race  of  man.' 

"Aged  pioneers,  we  are  all  mindful  of  the  many, 
many  hard  days'  work  done  in  Montana  in  anticipa- 
tion of  a  competency  at  least  sufficient  to  tide  us  com- 
fortably over  the  brink  of  life,  and  in  my  irregular 
train  of  thought,  my  silent  meditation,  I  half  dream 
of  something  beautiful  coming  to  us,  but  it  don't  come, 
and  we  are.  growing  old.  Hence  I  realize  that  the 
vaporing  dreams  vanish  with  life  of  'the  dreamer  un- 
rewarded. 

"Aged  pioneers,  as  our  race  with  time  is  almost 
won,  in  the  language  of  the  poet,  Robert  Burns,  'O 
wad  some  power  the  giftie  gee  us,'  and  I  say,  with 
power,  to  turn  the  wheels  of  time  backwards  to  the 
youthful,  happy  days,  months  and  years  when  we 
were  as  one  family  gratuitously  united,  when  the 
draughts  of  kindness  overwhelmed  the  present  sordid 
conditions,  when  human  pity  never  did  forsake  us, 
when  the  joys  of  life  were  unconfined,  when  equity 
was  law  and  inequity  received  its  inglorious  chastise- 
ment at  the  hands  of  honest  but  impartial  citizens 
determined  on  self  preservation.  When  Montana  was 
denuded  of  the  undesirable  element  that  disturbed 
the  peace  and  quietude  of  her  reputable  citizens,  until 
the  thieves  and  murderers  were  annihilated.  Were 
we  today  governed  by  the  same  impending,  just  laws 
enacted  by  these  old  timers,  when  the  necessities  de- 
manded retribution,  we  could  still  be  enjoying  the 
comforts  and  pleasures  of  life  that  nature  provides 
for  every  reputable,  honorable  citizen  and  not  be 
compelled  to  look  into  the  muzzle  of  a  gun  with  a 
demand  for  our  hard  earnings.  Such  a  villian  was 
hunted  down,  tried  by  honest  men,  before  honest 
laws,  and  when  found  guilty,  paid  the  penalty  of  his 
crime  by  dangling  in  the  air  at  the  end  of  a  rope,  the 
rope  being  the  only  expense  connected  with  the  cap- 
ture, trial  and  conviction  of  the  criminal,  which  now 
costs  the  tax-payers  thousands  and  thousands  of  dol- 
lars defraying  the  expenses  of  witnesses,  juries,  courts, 
and  the  quibblings  of  lawyers  over  hypothetical,  teach- 


938 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


nical    brain    storms.      In    an    altercation    between    two 
gamblers,  where  one  was  killed,  as  was  freqliently  the 
case,   we   meted   out   justice   to   the   aggressor   mvaria- 
bly  according  to   the   evidence.     Our   laws   were  inde- 
feasible   and    we    did    nothing    to    impair    the    dignity, 
honor  and  fame  of  a  people  in  placing  Montana's  bril- 
liant  star   on   our   national   ensign,  which   has   no   fear 
on  our  star  spangled  banner  in  radiating  effulgence  in 
representing    a    state    with    natural    inexhaustible    re- 
sources brought  into  requisition  and  productiveness  by 
the    intrepid    pioneer    whose    primitive    laws    protected 
every  honorable  individual  in  the  pursuit  of  his  labor. 
We  were  able  and  did  meet  the  responsibilities  thrust 
upon  us.     No  one,  however,  was  adjudged  guilty  and 
executed   except  upon  positive  evidence,  but   we   drew 
a    line    of    demarcation    for    the    suspicious    character 
with    a    warning    not    to    cross    it,    which    he    politely 
obeyed.     Thus    have   the   pioneers   of   Montana   played 
an  important   part   in   the   nation's   history,   never   los- 
ing interest  in  the  events  of  the  hour  until  age  and  re- 
sponsibility,   ill-matched    pair,    reminds    us    that    death 
comes    to    the    worn    and    weary    as   the    plucking   and 
harvesting  of  the   golden   grain,   as   the   falling  of   the 
autumn   leaf,   which   forces  us  to   realize  that  the  rus- 
tling garments  of  time  forever  still  the  beating  heart 
of  the  aged.     Hence  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  with 
us    all,    and    I    here    quote    from    the    poet    who    said : 
'We    live    in    deeds,    not    years — in    thoughts,    not    in 
breaths — in    feelings,   not   in   figures   on   the   dial,'   and, 
I   say,  his   life  is  greatest   who   thinks   the   most,   feels 
the  noblest,   acts   the   best   and   reasons   the  most   pro- 
found—reasons with  the  intellectual  philosopher.  That 
nature  (as  far  as  we  can  discern)  without  passion  and 
without    intention    performs,    transforms    and    retrans- 
forms    forever.      She    neither    weeps    nor    rejoices,    she 
produces    man    without    purpose    and    obliterates    him 
without    regret.'      Nature    is    the    governing   power    of 
th«    universe   and    'She   knows   no   distinction   between 
the  beneficial  and  the  hurtful.'     She  knows  no  begin- 
ning and  she  knows  no  ending.     She  always  was,  she 
is,  and  always  will  be,  in  proof  of  which  the  eminent 
scientist  tells  me  to  draw  a  dark  circle  on  a  sheet  of 
white  paper  and  as  in  its  orbit  the  end  joins  the  be- 
ginning, so  is  the  end  one  with  the  beginning  through- 
out   the    universe.      In    the  eternal     cycle     everything 
strives  toward  its  commencement  and  every  beginning 
yearns   to   be   where  the   end   joins  it.     Therefore,   we 
should  quarrel  no   longer  as  to  whether  we  will   ever 
be  immortal  spirits,  for  no  power  of  death  can  break 
the  imperishable  chain  of  things.     All  that  is  has  been 
in   existence   from   eternity  and  not  a  tiniest   speck  of 
dust  ever  loses  itself  in  the  arms  of  death.     Supersti- 
tion  was   my   first   thought,    reason   my   second.      Nar- 
row is  the  world  and  wide  the  brain. 

"Now  I  have  a  few  thoughts  stored  in  my  mind  I 
desire  to  impart  to  our  sons  and  daughters.  That  an- 
other year  has  come  and  gone  since  we  last  met  in 
Butte,  which  finds  my  health  so  much  improved  that 
I  can  stand  erect  and  address  you  without  looking  for 
a  support  to  my  back.  Health,  I  consider,  is  superior 
to  all  possessions.  The  young  apparently  do  not  appre- 
ciate it,  but  the  aged  do.  The  glory  and  pomp  of 
the  world  are  naught  when  compared  to  health.  If  the 
wealth  of  Croesus  were  mine,  and  my  body  racked  with 
pain  and  disease,  I  would  give  it  all  in  exchange  for 
health,  for  what  worth  is  man  without  strength  of 
body  to  vitalize  the  mind  to  do  or  not  to  do,  to  do 
that  which  is  right.  Then,  my  young  friends,  the 
good  people  of  the  whole  world  will  emblazon  the 
footprints  of  your  time  for  the  good  you  will  have 
done,  the  grand  precedent  you  will  have  established 
for  generations  unborn.  I  fancy  I  hear  some  of  you 
asking  yourselves  the  question:  'What  is  Right?'  In 
answering  that  question  I  will  recapitulate  the  oft- 
repeated  axiom  'To  do  unto  others  as  you  would  have 
others    do    unto    you.'      My    young    friends,    sons    and 


daughters,  as  this  may  possibly  (but  not  probably)  be 
the  last  time  allotted  me  to  address  you,  my  age  indi- 
cating that  my  usefulness  will  soon  be  over,  I  trust 
you  will  indulge  me  in  giving  you  the  advice  which 
i  have  conscientious!}'  practiced  during  my  mature 
years.  I  have  always  been  a  student  of  reciprocity, 
justifiable  forgiveness  and  benevolence,  and  I  ask  you 
to  let  the  sensation  of  humanity  interest  you  for  the 
condition  of  your  associates  and  fellow  creatures.  Let 
your  generous  hands  stretch  forth  to  lend  succor  to 
the  unfortunate  citizen  who  is  overwhelmed  by  his 
destiny.  Always  bear  in  your  recollection  that  it  falls 
as  heavy  upon  you  as  it  does  upon  him.  Acknowledge, 
then,  without  guile  that  every  unfortunate  has  an 
inalienable  right  to  your  kindness  above  all.  Wipe 
from  the  eyes  of  oppressed  innocence  the  trickling 
crystals  of  agonized  feeling.  Let  the  distressed  virtues 
fall  upon  your  sympathizing  bosom ;  let  the  genial  glow 
of  sincere  friendship  animate  your  honest  hearts ;  let 
the  fond  attachment  of  your  wife,  cherished  by  her 
warmest'  affections,  make  you  forget  the  sorrows  of 
life.  Be  faithful  to  her  love,  responseful  to  her  ten- 
derness, that  she  may  reward  you  by  a  reciprocity  of 
feeling,  that  under  the  eyes  of  parents  united  in  vir- 
tuous esteem  your  children  may  learn  to  set  a  proper 
value  on  practical  \irtue;  that  after  thus  occupying 
your  riper  years  you  may  comfort  j'our  declining  age 
and  thus  gild,  with  content,  your  setting  sun. 

"The  strongest  impression  of  my  life  is  coupled  with 
an  infatuation   to  inculcate  peace  and  harmony.     Thus 
have  I   l)een   deeply  interested  on  my  long  journey  so 
far    through    life    to   the    ripe   age   of   almost    seventy- 
eight    years,    and    thus    will    I    continue    to    the    end. 
Should    any    of    you    become    derelict    in    your    duties 
to    your    fellow    men,    rehearse    with    sentimental    feel- 
ing  the   lines   of   the   poet,   that    'man's    inhumanity   to 
man  makes  countless  thousands  mourn,'  which  should 
appeal    to    the    sympathies    of   any   who   values   life  as 
worth    the    living.     When    we    profoundly   contemplate 
the   environment   of  man,   his   many   duties   in   worldly 
affairs,  his  encroaching  responsibilities  if  coupled  with 
avarice,  we  should  appeal  to  him  in  the  language  of  a 
philosopher,  in  tones  of  eloquence,  that  'reason  is  the 
supreme  judge   for   a  contented  mind,'  that  avarice   is 
the   twin    to   a   miser,    whose   greed    for   gold    destroys 
him  in  every  element  of  gratitude,   rendering  his  ears 
deaf   to   the   cries    of   the   widows    and    orphans.     The 
avaricious    miser    has    no    love    for    the    beautiful,    the 
good    and    the    true,    nor    a    sense    of    duty   to    family, 
friends    or    society.      Therefore,    let    us    cultivate    and 
practice  benevolence,  which  teaches  us  to  consider  the 
welfare  of  the  human  race,  also  extend  a  helping  hand 
to  the  needy,  if  we  are  financially  able  so  to  do.     Then 
we  can  be  reconciled  to  the  immutable  order  of  things, 
when    there   will    be   no   question    unsolved    as    to    our 
happiness  here  and   forever.     Every   flower  which   un- 
folds  its  blossoms,   every   star  which   shines   by  night, 
will  illuminate  our  voyage  to  our  eternal  restful  sleep. 
The    jealousies,    bickerings,    and    quarrelings    that    en- 
thrall  the   ubiquitous  mind   are   not   known   among  pi- 
oneers ;    social    conditions    are    perfect    with    us.      The 
caste  which  bound  us  to  the  station  in  which  we  were 
born   was   broken   when   in  early  pioneer  days   we  di- 
vided   our    bacon    and    beans    with    our    honest    com- 
rades.    Here   in   this   society  the   door   of  privilege   is 
open  to  the  meritorious  only,  to  the  person  who  is  in 
search    of    honest    opportunities.      My    young    friendly 
pioneers'  sons  and  daughters,  in  conclusion  I  ask  you 
to    look    around    and    observe    how    many    old-timers 
are  here  today,  and  in  the  not  far-distant  future,  when 
they  will  be  no  more,  when  they  will  have  passed  into 
that  unknown  country,  'from  whose  bourne  no  traveler 
returns,'   think  not  that   they  lived   in  "vain,   that  their 
advice    is    ignored.      Stay    by    and    with    it    until    "your 
vision  can  no  longer  discern  the  daily  rising  and  set- 
ting of  the  sun,  so  that  the  grand  precepts  established 


(^.7-7^.  (S:<i^^^aj 


HISTORY  OF  .MONTANA 


939 


by  the  Montana  Pioneers  will  be  scrupulouslj'  observed 
by  their  sons  and  daughters  as  a  rule  and  guide  to 
their  conduct,  always  bearing  in  your  recollection  that 
your  ancestors  have  won  a  name  and  achieved  fame 
that  will  for  all  time  cluster  around  Montana's  his- 
toric  reminiscences." 

Dr.  O'Dillon  Whitford's  life  has  justified  that  ova- 
tion which  greeted  its  beginning,  for  it  has  been  dedi- 
cated to  the  service  of  the  public  through  the  chan- 
nel of  the  lofty  profession  of  medicine.  In  1881  the 
Eclectic  Medical  College  of  ?klilwaukee  bestowed  an 
honorary  degree  upon  Dr.  Whitford  in  recognition  of 
his  important  contribution  to  medical  knowledge  in 
the  treatment  of  pneumonia  and  typhoid  fever.  The 
strides  which  have  been  made  in  the  successful  war 
against  these  diseases  are  among  the  triumphs  of  mod- 
ern   therapeutics. 

Dr.  Whitford  is  an  honored  member  of  the  ^Masonic 
fraternity,  and  also  of  the  Old  Timers'  Association 
of  Silver  Bow  count}-.  In  1892  he  was  made  president 
of  the  society.  He  is  one  of  the  most  popular  citi- 
zens of  Butte,  as  he  is  one  of  the  foremost  in  his  pro- 
fession. 

Charles  H.  Green,  president  of  the  Green  Cattle 
Company,  which  was  incorporated  in  1893,  has  taken  an 
active  part  in  the  development  of  the  west  during  his 
lifetime.  The  industry  in  which  he  is  now  occupied 
is  one  of  the  most  extensive  enterprises  of  its  kind  in 
Montana,  being  devoted  to  the  breeding  of  thorough- 
bred horses  and  cattle  to  a  great  extent.  All  his  life 
^Ir.  Green  has  been  interested  in  the  stock  business, 
that  having  been  the  business  of  his  father,  who  was 
one  of  the  big  stockmen  of  the  state. 

Mr.  Green  was  born  in  Virginia  City  on  September 
16,  1864.  and  is  the  son  of  John  H.  and  Isabella  (Mor- 
row) Green.  The  father  was  born  in  Norwalk,  Huron 
county,  Ohio,  on  January  18,  1836,  and  was  the  son 
of  Philip  and  Clarissa  (Wood)  Green,  of  New  York 
state.  They  had  eight  children,  of  which  number  two 
reached  years  of  maturity. 

John  H.  Green,  the  third  child  of  his  parents,  spent 
his  young  life  in  Ohio  and  Michigan,  and  attended 
school  in  Detroit.  In  1859  he  went  to  Colorado  and 
engaged  in  the  sale  of  merchandise  until  1864,  when  he 
came  to  Virginia  City,  Montana,  and  engaged  in  the 
livestock  business.  In  1867  he  went  to  Silver  City  and 
there  dealt  in  miners'  supplies  for  a  number  of  years, 
and  in  1880  went  to  Fort  Benton  and  engaged  in  the 
livestock  business  on  a  large  scale.  He  had  as  many  as 
five  thousand  head  of  stock  on  his  ranch  at  one  time, 
and  prospered  steadily.  He  became  the  owner  of  a 
considerable  amount  of  real  estate  in  Fort  Benton  and 
throughout  the  county,  and  became  prominent  in  the 
financial  activities  of  the  city.  He  was  one  of  the 
organizers  of  the  Stockmen's  National  Bank  and  was 
a  director  of  the  bank  for  jears.  He  died  in  Fort 
Benton  November  23,  1903,  survived  by  his  widow  and 
four  children.  Mrs.  Green  was  born  in  Canada  on 
October  10.  1847,  a  daughter  of  Malcolm  Morrow,  a 
pioneer  of  Montana  of  the  year  1863.  Six  children  were 
born  to  ^Ir.  and  Mrs.  Green,  two  of  whom,  Jannett 
and  Eber  W.,  died  in  childhood.  The  others  are 
Charles  H.  of  this  review,  Walter  M.,  William  J.  and 
Frances  E.,  all  of  whom  are  associated  together  in  the 
enterprise  of  which  Charles  H.  is  the  head. 

When  Charles  H.  Green  was  an  infant  the  family 
moved  to  Helena  and  settled  in  the  Prickly  Pear  valley, 
where  the  father  was  for  a  time  engaged  in  dairy 
farming  and  other  enterprises.  In  1876  he  moved  to 
Rock  Creek,  and  there  was  started  the  mammoth  stock 
business  which  reached  generous  proportions  during 
his  lifetime  and  which  has  been  expanded  on  a  wide 
scale  since  his  death  by  his  sons.  In  1887  Charles 
Green  left  home  and  settled  in  Great  Falls.  Montana, 
and    formed   a   partnership   with    Charles   Taylor,   and 


they  were  the  first  to  operate  a  livery  business  in  this 
section  of  the  countr.v.  They  continued  in  that  busi- 
ness for  three  years,  then  traded  the  business  for  sev- 
eral hundred  head  of  horses,  which  he  drove  to  Chou- 
teau county,  becoming  sole  owner  and  joining  the 
cattle  business.  In  1903  the  business  had  reached  gen- 
erous proportions,  and  on  the  death  of  the  elder  Green, 
the  business  was  incorporated  under  the  state  laws. 
Charles  H.  Green  was  made  president,  and  has  since 
continued  in  that  position ;  Walter  M.  is  secretary  and 
treasurer,  and  resides  in  Lewistown,  Montana ;  William 
J.  is  vice-president,  and  Mrs.  Isabelle  Green,  the  mother, 
and  Frances  Green,  sister  of  the  subject,  are  also  mem- 
bers of  the  firm.  In  this  way  the  interests  of  John  H. 
Green  were  in  a  measure  perpetuated,  and  the  two 
have  united  to  form  one  of  the  really  big  stock  breed- 
ing enterprises  of  the  state.  The  company  was  incor- 
porated for  $100,000,  including  cattle,  horses,  ranch 
propert}',  etc.,  all  located  in   Chouteau  county. 

In  addition  to  his  ranching  interests,  Air.  Green  has 
identified  himself  in  a  prominent  way  with  numerous 
other  industries,  among  which  are  the  Benton  Sana- 
tarium,  of  which  he  is  president,  and  the  Benton  Drug 
Company,  in  which  he  holds  the  position  of  treasurer. 
He  served  as  mayor  of  Fort  Benton  from  1906  to  1908, 
and  is  now  a  candidate  for  re-election.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Commercial  Club  of  Fort  Benton,  and  is 
inclined  to  an  independent  view  in  matters  of  a  political 
nature. 

On  November  14,  1892,  Mr.  Green  was  married  in 
Fort  Benton  to  Aliss  Lottie  E.  Smith,  the  daughter  of 
John  R.  Smith.  Three  children  have  been  born  to 
them :  Mary  C,  born  in  Fort  Benton  in  August,  1893 ; 
Helen  H.,  born  April  21,  1897,  and  John  H.  Green, 
also  born  in  Fort  Benton,  October  20,  1899,  being  his 
natal   day. 

Alfred  M.  Esler  was  a  pioneer  of  Montana  and  one 
who,  during  the  thirty-six  years  that  marked  the  period 
of  his  residence  in  the  state,  was  engaged  in  min- 
ing, and  few  men  did  more  than  he  in  the  development 
of  that  portion  of  the  vast  ncsources  of  the  state. 

Air.  Esler  was  a  native  of  Carthage,  Jefferson  county. 
New  York,  where  he  was  born  on  October  5,  1837,  of 
French  Ancestry.  His  parents,  Moses  and  Sophia 
(Wemott)  Esler,  were  both  natives  of  New  York. 
They  had  seven  children, — four  sons  and  three  daugh- 
ters, of  which  Alfred  AI.  was  the  eldest.  The  father 
was  a  carriage  manufacturer.  He  led  a  useful  and 
worthy  life  and  died  in  his  sixty-second  year.  The 
mother  survived  her  husband  a  number  of  years  and 
died  in  New  York. 

Alfred  Al.  Esler  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
of  his  native  state  and  there  learned  the  trade  of  a  house 
painter  and  decorator.  He  engaged  as  a  merchant  at 
Boonville,  carrying  a  line  of  wall  paper,  books,  station- 
ery, etc.,  and  was  so  engaged  when  the  reports  of  the 
rich  gold  mines  in  Alontana  induced  him  to  leave  a 
profitable  business  and  come  west  and  seek  a  fortune. 
Accordingly  he  sold  out  in  1864  and  made  the  journey 
across  the  plains  and  mountains  with  ox  teams,  the 
trip  being  accomplished  after  long  and  tedious  months 
of  travel.  He  and  his  brother-in-law  made  the  jour- 
ney together,  both  being  accompanied  by  their  wives. 
At  the  end  of  five  months  they  reached  their  destination, 
— Bannack,  and  there  they  divided  their  effects.  Air. 
Esler  getting  two  j'oke  of  oxen  for  his  share.  He  traded 
his  oxen  for  a  placer  claim  and  engaged  in  mining,  but 
soon  afterward  discovered  that  his  claim  was  valueless. 
Later  in  the  season  Governor  Edgerton  gave  him  the  ap- 
pointment of  justice  of  the  peace.  With  this  office  and 
by  keeping  boarders,  they  managed  to  live.  The  follow- 
ing spring,  in  1865,  he  met  with  a  great  bereavement  in 
the  loss  of  his  wife.  In  that  year  he  engaged  in  gold 
prospecting  and  was  fortunate  enough  to  locate  a  good 
silver  mine  near   Argenta,   which   he  named  the  Legal 


940 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


Tender,  and  which  was  the  first  quartz  claim  worked  in 
the  state.  That  fall  he  started  with  a  six-horse  wagon 
load  of  ore  and  took  it  back  across  the  plains  to  the 
east,  and  thence  to  Europe  to  a  smelter.  His  showing  of 
it  to  the  people  of  the  east  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
a  company,  to  which  he  sold  a  three-fourths  interest  in 
the  mine.  In  the  spring  of  1866  he  returned  to  engage 
in  a  St.  Louis  company  and  Mr.  Esler  gave  him  $20,000 
in  gold  to  put  up  a  smelter  and  smelt  two  hundred  tons 
of  the  ore.  It  proved  a  success,  and  Mr.  Esler  after- 
ward put  up  two  smelters  and  a  retlner.  After  they  had 
taken  out  a  ton  and  a  half  of  silver  the  mine  gave  out, 
and  the  freights  were  so  high  it  was  impossible  to  make 
it  pay  with  the  ore  the  mine  was  producing,  so  they 
discontinued  work  there.  Subsequently,  Mr.  Esler,  with 
his  brother  Frank,  leased  a  smelter  at  Jefferson  City., 
Montana,  and  six  months  later  it  was  burned.  Mr". 
Esler  located  various  mines  in  Montana,  with  varied 
success,  and  at  one  time  was  interested  in  the  Parrot 
mine  in  Butte ;  in  fact,  it  was  during  his  connection  with 
this  property  that  the  facilities  for  mining  the  ore  were 
greatly  increased.  For  a  period  he  was  interested  in 
developing  mining  property  at  VVickes  and  also  had 
holdings  in  the  Rimini  district.  He  became  interested 
m  several  rich  mining  prospects  in  the  Coeur  d'Alene 
district,  including  the  Badger,  Emma  and  Last  Chance 
mines,  and  became  interested  in  a  deal  looking  to  the 
development  of  property  purchased  by  the  Bunker 
Hill  and  Sullivan  Company.  Mr.  Esler  engineered  that 
deal  which  had  more  to  do  with  the  development  of 
the  great  silver  and  lead  district  than  any  other  enter- 
prise. He  helped  to  organize  the  Helena  &  Frisco  Com- 
pany, composed  largely  of  Helena  capitalists,  who  made 
a  great  amount  of  money  from  the  mine,  the  controlling 
interest  being  later  sold   to   an   English   syndicate. 

In  1892  the  Badger  mill  was  blown  up  by  the  miners 
who  had  struck  for  higher  wages,— a  demand  which 
the  owners  of  the  mine  deemed  unreasonable  and  with 
which  they  could  not  comply.  They  shut  down  the 
works,  and  later,  upon  opening  again,  they  employed 
new  men.  While  sixty  men  were  at  work  in  the  mill 
it  was  blown  up  with  giant  powder,  and  the  miners 
attacked  the  workmen,  five  being  killed  and  fifteen  in- 
jured. Two  of  Mr.  Esler's  brothers  were  in  the  mill 
at  the  time.  One  was  taken  prisoner  and  the  other  es- 
caped by  hiding  in  an  excavation.  Mr.  Esler  had  been 
firm  and  resolute  during  all  the  trouble,  and  at  the 
}}^.^  ^  fl^e  attack  one  hundred  men  went  in  search  of 
Old  Esler"  as  they  called  him.  Some  of  the  men  who 
participated  in  the  outrage  were  later  tried  and  sent  to 
the  penitentiary. 

Mr.  Esler's  last  mining  operations  were  on  the  Black- 
foot  ceded  strip  of  Altyn,  Teton  countv,  Montana, 
where  the  A.  M.  Esler  Mining  &  Milling  Company  had 
under  bond  the  Cracker  and  Bullhead  copper  proposi- 
tions. They  had  practically  completed  a  concentrator 
and  were  soon  to  begin  operations,  when  Mr.  Esler 
was  stricken  and  died  very  suddenly  on  September  10 
1900. 

Mr.  Esler  was  a  member  of  the  Masonic  fraternity, 
being  made  a  Master  Mason  at  Brookville,  New  York, 
soon  after  he  had  attained  his  majority,  and  he  ever 
retained  his  active  membership  in  that  order.  He  was 
a  Republican  and  always  took  a  deep  interest  in  po- 
litical rnatters,  serving  his  partv  well.  He  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  territorial  legislature  of  Montana 
in  1866.  In  that  year  there  were  only  two  Re- 
publicans in  the  house,  and  the  laws  passed  by 
the  legislature  were  so  noxious  that  through  the 
efforts  of  Senator  Sanders,  the  whole  action  was  an- 
nulled by  the  United  States  congress.  In  those  ex- 
citing times  a  man  ran  no  little  risk  in  being  a  Re- 
publican, and  it  required  a  deal  of  courage  for  Mr. 
Esler  to  maintain  his  position  and  act  and  vote  accord- 
mg  to  his  convictions,  but  he  proved  himself  in  every 
way  equal  to  the  occasion.  In  1896  he  became  a  Sil- 
ver Republican   and   so  remained   until  his   death. 


Mr.  Esler  was  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  church 
and  was  a  trustee  of  St.  Peters  Hospital,  in  the  af- 
fairs of  which  he  took  a  deep  interest.  On  January  29. 
1874,  he  was  married  to  Ophelia  B.  Johnston,  eldes 
daughter  of  Colonel  Johnston,  who  was  a  well-known 
pioneer  of  Montana,  coming  first  to  the  territory  in  1862 
and  bringing  his  family  in  1864,  that  year  marking  the 
advent  of  Mrs.  Esler  in  the  state.  Col.  Johnson  died 
I  n   1 09 1  ■ 

Three  children  were  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Esler,  as 

wife  of  Harry  E.  Woodman,  a  business  man  of  Helena 
and  they  have  two  children,— Richard  E.  who  died 
young,  and  Elizabeth  Kathryn ;  Alfred  M  Jr  died 
May  25,  1894,  in  the  eighth  year  of  his  life 

-Mrs.  Esler  continues  her  residence  in  Helena  on 
Harrison  avenue  where  the  family  of  her  daughter  also 
resides.  Mr.  Esler  was  a  man  of  quiet  tastes,  retiring 
in  manner,  but  yet  possessed  of  a  strong  and  forceful 
character  He  had  a  wide  acquaintance  throughout  this 
section  of  the  country  and  well  merited  the  high  es- 
eem  and  regard  in  which  he  was  held.  He  was  particu- 
lar y  fond  of  his  adopted  state,  Montana,  and  had  great 
faith  in  Its  future.  Any  movement  for  the  advaqcement 
and  good  of  the  state  received  his  heartiest  support,  and 
-Montana  owes  much  to  him,  as  he  was  a  pioneer  in  a 
number  of  important  districts  in  the  state. 

Malcolm  Morrow.  The  entire  career  of  Malcolm 
Morrow,  one  of  the  prominent  citizens  of  Fort  Benton 
IS  illustrative  of  the  many  trying  experiences  with  which 
the  pioneers  of  Montana  had  to  contend,  and  an  item- 
ized record  of  the  various  hardships  through  which  he 
lias  passed  and  the  numerous  narrow  escapes  which 
characterized  his  early  life  would  fill  many  pages  in 
this  volume  A  somewhat  brief  record  of  his  career 
however,  will  be  of  interest  to  those  of  the  younger 
generation,  in  that  it  will  show  of  what  hardy  stuff 
these  pioneers  of_  the  commonwealth  were  made  and 
how  through  their  courage,  persistence  and  fortitude 
one  of  the  greatest  states  in  the  Union  has  been  de- 
veloped from  the  wilderness.  Mr.  Morrow  is  a  native 
^erth  Canada,  and  was  born  February  8,  i8;o  a 
son  of  Malcomb  and  Jennett  (Mathewson)  Morrow 
His  father,  also  a  native  of  Canada,  came  to  the  United 
States  as  a  young  man,  locating  first  in  Colorado  where 
he  was  for  some  time  engaged  in  mining  in  Georgia 
Gulch.  In  1863  he  removed  to  Alder  Gulch,  Montana 
but  subsequently  moved  on  to  McClellan  Gulch  and 
after  locating  a  claim  returned  to  Denver  for  his 
family^  He  continued  mining  there  and  at  Last  Chance 
and  Canyon  creek,  Georgetown,  Montana,  until  he 
retired  from  mining,  when  he  took  up  his  residence 
in  Helena  He  later  went  to  Seven  Mile,  and  in  1870 
located  in  Fort  Benton,  where  his  death  occurred  May 
18,  1891,  when  he  was  sixty-five  years  of  age.  He  was 
well  known  in  his  day  and  locality,  and  had  numerous 
friends  throughout  the  state.  Mr.  Morrow  married 
Jennett  Mathewson,  who  was  born  in  Glasgow,  Scot- 
land,  and    came   to   America   as   a   child,    her   parents 

aZ^  ^P^  '"  panada  and  later  removing  to  Colorado 
and  Montana.  She  died  in  Helena,  June  16,  1878,  when 
fifty-three  years  of  age.  Malcolm  was  the  eldest  son 
of  their  ten  children. 

Malcolm  Morrow  was  a  mere  lad  when  he  accom- 
panied his  parents  to  Denver,  Colorado,  and  in  that 
w^.u^u?"^/^,  ^^^,  P"'^^''^  schools  for  a  short  period 
With  his  father  he  joined  in  the  stampede  for  Ban- 
nack  but  their  destination  was  subsequently  changed 
to  Alder  Gulch,  where  he  followed  mining  and  pros- 
pecting to  some  extent,  but  was  mainly  identified  with 
the  cattle  business.  After  continuing  in  Alder  Gulch 
in  1864,  in  the  early  part  of  1865  he  moved  to  Last 
Chance  Gulch,  enduring  numerous  hardships  in  the 
J9urney  and  finding  the  camp  in  a  state  of  great  ex- 
citement on  reaching  that  point.    He  was  there  eno^aged 


Tfc  Z^'^s  y='ui/,s^ny 


-.7  ^«.y'i>-' »«{«»»»  df  Srir  y^/^' 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


941 


in  the  cattle  business  until  1880.  During  this  time  he 
was  in  constant  trouble  with  the  Blackfeet  and  Blood 
Indians,  and  on  one  occasion  his  entire  herd  of  live- 
stock was  stolen,  and  when  the  marauders  were  cap- 
tured he  recovered  only  three  or  four  head  of  his 
horses.  During  the  spring  of  1865,  Mr.  Morrow  started 
freighting  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and  on  one  of  his  sub- 
sequent trips,  having  been  forewarned,  his  party  were 
continually  on  the  watch  for  road  agents.  However, 
they  were  fortunate  in  not  being  molested,  although  on 
one  occasion  the  stage  following  was  held  up  and  a 
passenger  severely  vv'ounded,  Mr.  Morrow's  party  re- 
turning and  placing  him  in  a  place  of  safety,  which 
led  to  his  ultimate  recovery.  On  Mr.  Morrow's  first 
arrival  in  Fort  Benton,  in  1866,  the  fort  was  of  mud, 
and  was  located  one-half  mile  above  the  present  site  of 
the  new  fort,  and  on  the  night  of  his  coming  great 
excitement  prevailed,  a  white  woman  having  been  killed 
here.  From  the  time  of  his  coming  here  Mr.  Morrow 
has  continued  to  be  a  resident  of  Fort  Benton,  having 
devoted  himself  to  raising  cattle  and  horses  and  to 
the  freighting  business.  He  is  well  known  throughout 
Chouteau  county,  and  bears  the  reputation  of  an  excel- 
lent business  man  and  a  public-spirited  citizen.  He 
has  interested  himself  in  numerous  enterprises,  and  at 
this  time  is  president  of  the  Benton  Drug  Company, 
and  a  director  and  vice-president  of  the  Shonkin  Stock 
Association.  In  political  matters  he  is  a  Republican, 
and  his  religious  connection  is  with  the  Episcopal 
church.  Montana  owes  a  debt  to  its  pioneers  which 
can  never  fully  be  repaid.  Many  of  them  had  little 
schooling,  but  they  were  rich  in  self-control,  in  effi- 
ciency and  in  common  sense  and  they  had  gotten  their 
wisdom  in  the  greatest  of  schools — pioneer  life.  They 
had  stood  face  to  face  with  the  savage,  with  untouched 
nature,  every  elemental  thing.  Those  who  remain 
deserve  the  honor  and  esteem  of  their  fellows  as  men 
who  were  part  and  parcel  of  the  making  of  the  com- 
monwealth, and  without  whose  courageous  efforts 
present  conditions  could  not  have  been. 

Mr.  Morrow  was  married  at  Helena,  Montana,  July 
25,  1875,  to  Miss  Mary  Ann  Travis,  daughter  of  James 
and  Elizabeth  Travis,  and  sister  of  Tom  Travis,  chief 
of  poHce  of  Helena.  They  have  had  eight  children,  as 
follows :  Macke  Conrad,  born  June  16,  1876,  of  Cas- 
cade, who  is  married  and  has  three  children ;  Mrs. 
Bertha  Russel,  of  Cascade,  wife  of  Dr.  Russel,  born 
September  29,  1878,  at  Rock  Creek,  Montana;  Jen- 
nett  Morrow,  born  December  4,  1881,  at  Fort  Benton, 
and  now  a  school  teacher  of  Galata;  Mrs.  Florence 
Whitcomb,  born  September  27,  1884,  at  Fort  Benton, 
and  now  a  resident  of  Boulder,  with  one  child ;  Warren 
Thomas,  born  June  4,  1887,  at  Fort  Benton,  who  now 
has  charge  of  his  father's  ranch;  Leonard  H.,  born 
April  15,  1891,  at  Fort  Benton,  and  now  engaged  in 
the  drug  business  here;  Isabel  Ruth,  born  January  4, 
1893,  a  graduate  of  the  high  school;  and  J.  Dewey, 
born  May  7,  1898,  now  attending  school. 

F.  George  Heldt.  When  a  man  has  been  as  closely 
connected  with  his  state  as  has  F.  George  Heldt  with 
the  state_  of  Montana  he  must  feel  that  it  is  fairly  a 
part  of  him.  When  he  has  fought  to  maintain  its  honor, 
and  has  stood  by  its  standard  in  times  of  apparent 
peace,  when  although  no  bullets  were  flying  the  safety 
of  the  state  and  of  her  citizens  was  in  as  great  danger, 
he  must  feel  a  love  for  the  very  soil,  such  as  those  who 
have  known  her  only  since  she  has  become  a  great 
and  wealthy  commonwealth  can  never  feel.  Mr.  Heldt 
has  held  more  ofifices,  perhaps,  than  has  any  other  liv- 
ing resident  of  his  state,  from  the  first  city  marshal  in 
the  whole  state  to  a  member  of  the  state  legislature. 
He  came  to  Montana  when  there  was  little  to  be  seen 
but  buffalo.  Indians  and  a  few  adventurous  white  men 
ready  to  risk  everything  for  the  gold  which  they  be- 
lieved to  exist,  hidden  away  in  the  heart  of  the  moun- 


tains or  in  the  beds  of  the  streams.  His  first  job  was 
shoveling  "pay  dirt;"  he  is  now  one  of  the  best  known 
men  m  the  state.  He  did  not  "strike  it  rich,"  but  found 
success  slow  in  coming  to  him.  He  was  too  much 
occupied  with  living  to  spend  much  of  his  time  and 
thought  on  the  problem  of  getting  rich,  but  as  the 
saying  is,  "You  can't  keep  a  good  man  down,"  and  he 
eventually  reached  a  position  of  prominence  in  th5 
business  world.  In  the  meantime  everyone  in  the  state 
came  to  know  F.  George  Heldt,  for  he  did  not  spare 
himself  in  the  service  of  the  people.  Whenever  there 
was  a  dilficult  or  dangerous  task  to  be  performed  F. 
George  Heldt  was  one  of  the  first  volunteers,  never 
taking  into  consideration  personal  risk.  He  is  one  of 
the  most  progressive  men  in  a  progressive  state,  and  has 
played  an  important  part  in  her  growth  and  develop- 
ment. He  holds  an  enviable  place  in  the  hearts  of 
all  who  know  the  story  of  his  life. 

F.  George  Heldt,  like  a  true  westerner,  believes  that 
a  man  is  what  he  makes  himself  and  not  what  his  ances- 
tors make  him;  he  therefore  has  never  bothered  his 
head  about  the  blood  that  runs  in  his  veins,  only  know- 
ing that  he  is  of  royal  lineage,  his  paternal  great- 
grandmother  being  a  daughter  of  the  Grand  Duke  of 
Hesse,  Germany,  who  was  also  known  as  the  Gross 
Herzog  of  Hesse  Darmstadt.  He  was  evidently  a 
member  of  the  younger  branch  of  the  house  of  Hesse, 
and  therefore  a  member  of  the  line  that  is  yet  reign- 
ing. The  parents  of  Mr.  Heldt  were  of  the  stufif  that 
ventures  all,  and  they  determined  that  life  offered 
more  in  America  than  in  their  native  land,  and  that  they 
would  immigrate  to  this  newer  world.  They  set  sail 
from  Germany  in  1833,  their  vessel  being  a  slow  sail- 
ing ship.  The  voyage  occupied  sixty-five  days,  and  al- 
though the  experience  was  a  new  and  interesting  one, 
they  were  indeed  thankful  to  see  land  again.  They 
settled  on  a  farm  in  Orleans  township,  Jefferson  county, 
in  the  state  of  New  York,  and  there  on  the  12th  of  July, 
1839.  F.  George  Heldt  was  born.  He  had  a  twin 
brother,  of  whom  he  was  the  elder  by  ten  minutes, 
which  fact  he  always  considered  gave  him  authority  over 
the  younger. 

His  schooling  was  not  very  extensive,  all  of  his 
elementary  work  being  performed  in  the  district  school. 
During  the  season  he  worked  on  his  father's  farm,  and 
thus  his  school  year  consisted  of  three  months  in  the 
winter.  Later,  however,  he  attended  two  terms,  each 
consisting  of  fourteen  weeks,  at  Falley  Seminary,  Ful- 
ton, New  York.  With  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  war 
and  the  president's  call  for  "three  hundred  thousand 
more  volunteers,"  Mr.  Heldt  was  on  fire  with  patriot- 
ism and  eager  to  go  to  the  front.  He  therefore  en- 
listed in  the  Ninety-fourth  New  York  Volunteer  Infan- 
try, in  which  he  served  for  two  years.  He  then  en- 
listed in  the  Irish  Brigade  which  was  under  the 
command  of  Gen.  Michael  Cochran,  remaining  in 
this  service  for  a  year.  It  was  during  the  Civil  war 
that  what  Mr.  Heldt  considers  the  most  memorable 
event  in  his  life  occurred.  He  was  at  the  time  in  the 
quartermaster's  department  stationed  at  Fairfax  cou'rt- 
house,  Virginia,  and  he  happened  to  be  in  Washing- 
ton when  General  Burnside's  army  was  to  pass  in  review 
liefore  the  president.  Mr.  Heldt  very  fortunately  had 
a  room  in  Willard's  hotel,  facing  Pennsylvania 
avenue,  and  adjoining  the  balcony  whereon  President 
Lincoln  and  General  Burnside  stood  during  the  re- 
view. After  the  army  had  passed,  Mr.  Heldt  stepped 
out  upon  the  balcony,  and  put  forth  his  hand,  and 
though  to  the  president  he  was  only  one  of  the  "boys 
in  blue,"  it  was  seized  and  shaken  with,  as  Mr.  Heldt 
expresses  it,  "as  much  cordiality  and  pleasure  as  if 
I  were  a  long  lost  and  dear  friend."  Just  another  in- 
stance of  the  big-hearted  friendliness  of  our  greatest 
of   all    presidents. 

After  his  years  in  the  army  had  come  to  a  close  he 
was  fired  with  the  ambition   to   win   a   fortune  by   the 


942 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


marvelous   tales   of   the   wealth   recently   discovered   in 
the   gold   fields   of   Idaho.     He    started   upon   his   quest 
on  the  nth  of  May,  1864,  going  by  way  of  steamer  as 
far    as    Chicago.      His    ship    was    a   propeller,    and    his 
starting  point   was    Clayton,    New    York,   a   little  town 
on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  river.     There   were 
four  in  this   party   during  this  trip  through   the   Great 
Lakes,  P.  J.  Hughes,  a  nephew  of  Archbishop  Hughes, 
of   New   York,   Albert  Bushnell,   Frank   Peck   and   Mr. 
Heldt.     When  the  party  arrived  at  Chicago  it  was  de- 
creased   by   the   withdrawal   of   Mr.    Bushnell   and    Mr. 
Peck,   who  were    frightened   out   of  the  project,   for   it 
was   almost   certain  that   hostile  Indians   would  be   en- 
countered   and    the    travelers    heard    nothing    but   tales 
of    the   dangers    and    privations    of    the    journey.      Mr. 
Hughes  and   Mr.  Heldt,  in  addition  to  being  naturally 
brave,  and   indeed  more  daring  than  was  needful,  had 
already  had  three  years  of  the  hardships  of  an   army 
life,   and   so   were   willing   to   venture.     From    Chicago 
the  railroad  journey  to  Grinnell,  Iowa,  at  that  time  the 
farthest  west  the  railroad  had  reached,  was  madf.   From 
Grinnell  to   Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  stage  coach  was  the 
means   of  transportation.     Here  they  crossed  the  Mis- 
souri river  to  Omaha  on  a  ferry  boat,  and  in  the  latter 
place  fortunately  encountered  a  band  of  men,  seven  in 
number   who  were  on  their  way  to  the  gold   fields   of 
Idaho,   having  come   from  Wisconsin.     Mr.   Heldt  and 
his   friend   made   arrangements  to  join  this   party,  and 
they  set  out  on  the  ist  day  of  June,  1864.     The  party 
as  it  finally  stood  was  made  up  of  nine  men  with  their 
baggage  and  provisions  loaded  on  four  two-horse  spring 
wagons.    As  far  as  Mr.  Heldt  knows  he  is  now  the  only 
survivor  of  this  band  of  pioneers. 

On  leaving  Omaha  the  line  of  march  followed  the 
Platte  river  to  Fort  Laramie.  There  they  left  the  river 
and  proceeded  through  the  hostile  Indian  country,  ex- 
pecting an  attack  any  day  from  any  direction.  In  fitting 
the  party  for  the  trip  care  had  been  taken  to  have  a 
plentiful  supply  of  guns  and  ammunition  at  the  sac- 
rifice of  other  comforts,  so-called.  A  close  watch  was 
kept  and  every  night  a  guard  was  set,  the  night  being 
divided  into  watches  and  each  of  the  party  serving  their 
turn  at  this  duty.  However  in  spite  of  all  their  pre- 
cautions, it  would  have  been  a  simple  task  for  the  In- 
dians to  have  taken  them  by  surprise  and  to  have 
massacred  them  all.  for  they  were  no  match  for  the  red 
men,  as  yet.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  Indians 
would  have  paid  dearly  for  their  victory,  for  a  braver 
band  of  men  never  set  forth'  on  an  expedition.  One 
of  the  members,  however,  though  not  cowardly  was  yet 
very  cautious,  and  was  in  constant  expectation  of  a 
band  of  Indians  swooping  down  upon  them  from  the 
next  butte.  He  therefore  awoke  each  morning  with 
a  new  idea  about  safeguarding  the  party,  and  his  de- 
vices were  not  only  unheard  of,  but  laughable.  When- 
ever any  of  the  party  ridiculed  him.  or  hinted  that  he 
might  be  a  little  cowardly,  he  would  reply,  "Well,  I 
believe  in  taking  ample  precaution  enough."'  It  was 
only  a  short  time  before  he  was  known  only  as  "Ample 
Precaution  Enough,"  and  he  never  lost  this  cogno- 
men. 

Although  the  men  were  thankful,  when  they  reached 
the  ruins  of  what  must  have  been  a  train  of  a  dozen  or 
more  wagons,  of  which  only  a  smouldering  mass  of 
cinders  remained,  that  they  had  proceeded  so  far  un- 
molested, yet  their  blood  boiled  and  they  would  have 
liked  to  have  taken  a  few  shots  at  the  marauders  who 
had  perpetrated  this  horror.  They  passed  on,  overtak- 
ing several  large  trains,  but  although  warned  that  they 
would  be  much  safer  they  could  not  endure  the  slow 
pace  that  these  heavily  laden  wagons  were  forced  to 
move.  On  one  occasion,  they  did  join  the  train  of 
which  Capt.  J.  H.  Mills  was  in  command,  and 
traveled  with  him  for  several  days.  This  was  through 
the  worst  bit  of  country,  where  every  bush  looked  sus- 
picious. The  passage  was  made  uneventfully,  however, 
and  so  with  a  grave  farewell,  for  who  knew  when  they 


would  again  meet,  the  two  parties  separated  and  the 
smaller  swiftly  proceeded  on  its  way.  It  was  on  the 
seventy-first  day  of  their  journey  since  leaving  Omaha, 
that  a  glad  shout  went  up  from  the  weary,  travel-worn 
band;  Virginia  City  was  in  sight.  Success  and  for- 
tune lay  at  their  feet.  The  trip  had  been  made  with 
such  comparative  ease,  and  in  so  short  a  time  that  they 
regarded  it  as  a  good  omen  for  the  future. 

The   first   thing  to   be   done   on   their   arrival    in   the 
town  was  to  build  a  cabin,  and  it  was  fortunate   that 
among  their  party  was  a  carpenter  and  also  a  mason, 
for  they  would  have   had  to  pay  a  fabulous  sum  had 
they  hired  the  cabin  built.     This  was  soon  accomplished 
and  then  each  man  turned  out  to  hunt  work.     Before 
Mr.  Heldt  had  fairly  looked  around,  he  had  begun  his 
public  service,  for  he  was  mustered  into  the  Vigilantes 
and  took  the  obligation,  that  is,  promised  to  give  his  as- 
sistance   towards    ridding    the    country   of   the    thieves, 
murderers  and  desperadoes  with  which  it  was  infested. 
and   at   all   times   to  stand   ready  to   do   his   duty  as   a 
Vigilante.     Western  men  know  what  this  band  of  men 
accomplished,  but  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  may  be 
unfamiliar  with  their  record   the   following  incident  is 
related.     First,  let   it  be   understood   that   at   this   time 
there  was   no   law   in   the  country,   and   the  Vigilantes 
were  banded  together  to  protect  the  lives  and  property 
of  citizens,   not   as   some   have   supposed    for   the   sake 
of   the    excitement   that    was    the    daily    food    of    these 
men.      Place   yourself   in   Virginia    City,   on   a    Sunday, 
in  the  year  1864.     You  are  standing  on  Main  street  in 
front  of  a  large   gambling  house  filled  with  men  who 
have    come    into    town    for    their    weekly    spree;    the 
poker    tables    are    full,    faro    is    in    full    swing    at    the 
other  end  of  the  building ;   everywhere  are  men,  filled 
with  the  lust  for  gold,  many  willing  to  commit  murder 
in  order  to  get  it.    The  clink  of  gold,  or  the  soft  thump 
of  a  bag  of  dust,  are  the  only  sounds  save  the  voices 
of    the    players.      To    your    left    is    an    auction    stand, 
presided     over     by     a     shifty-eyed,     soft     footed     man 
who  is  selling  "cayuses,"   and  whenever  a  new  animal 
is  put  up  for  sale,  the  auctioneer  flings  himself  on  the 
back    of   the   beast,    and    dashes    madly    up    and    down 
the  street,  regardless  of  the  crowd,  throwing  his  arms 
about  to  show  the  ease  with  which  the  bronco  might 
be   controlled,   or   with   the   reins   tightly  grasped,   put- 
ting the  scraggly  animal  through  his  paces.     He  is  the 
center  of  an  admiring,  excited  crowd,  and  to  the  right 
not  ten  feet  from  the  gambling  house  door  stands  his 
competitor,    a    clergyman,    preaching    the    gospel    to    a 
crowd  of  several  hundred.     Every  minute  or  so  a  man 
drunk  with  whiskey,  or  mad  with  rage  at  having  lost 
his    "pile,"    reels   from   the   door,    stares    a   moment    at 
the    minister    of    God,    mutters    a    curse    beneath    his 
breath,  starts  toward  the  religious  meeting,  then  meet- 
ing the  eyes  of  a  quiet  looking  man,  who  is   lounging 
against   the  house  wall,   slinks  down  the  street  to  the 
mass  around  the  auctioneer's  stand.     As  the  afternoon 
wears    away    the   revelry    and    intoxication   grows,    and 
suddenly  with  a  wild  whoop  some  of  the  worst  of  the 
cut-throats  in  the  gambling  house  pour  forth,  bent  on 
mischief.     They  make   their   way  toward   the  minister, 
intent    on    breaking    up    the    services.      Suddenly    from 
every  side  appear  the  watchful   Vigilantes,   and   at  the 
word    from   the   quiet   lounger,   "Men,    do   your    duty !" 
they    stand    ready   to    fire.      It    is    not    necessary,    their 
reputation   is   too  well   known,   and  the  men  who   had 
been   so    brave    a    moment    before    now    vanish    in    the 
crowd.      These    were    the    sort    of    men    of    whom    the 
Vigilantes  were  composed. 

The  first  job  that  Mr.  Heldt  found  was  shovelling 
"pay  dirt"  from  the  platform  where  it  was  thrown  by 
the  miners  in  the  pit  hclou,  into  the  sluice  box,  above 
his  head.  He  did  not  start  to  work  until  noon  of 
the  day  upon  which  he  was  hired,  and  at  six  o'clock 
went  to  receive  his  pay  of  $2.50  in  gold  dust.  When 
he  pulled  ofif  his  heavy  buckskin  gloves,  his  hands  were 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


943 


wet  with  blood,  and  when  the  boss  told  him  he  would 
not  be  needed  tomorrow,  his  grin  was  one  of  joy.  The 
next  trial  he  made  at  earning  liis  living  was  in  chop- 
ping cord  wood.  He  and  his  partner,  Air  Hughes,  took 
a  contract  for  cutting  a  hundred  cords  of  wood  at  the 
rate  of  $2.00  a  cord,  and  since  they  had  no  money  to 
buy  food  in  the  meantime,  they  were  to  be  supplied  with 
"grub,"  the  value  of  which  was  to  be  taken  from  their 
pay.  They  had  only  to  chop  the  wood,  their  boss 
cording  it  as  he  hauled  it.  They  worked  at  this  for 
three  weeks,  and  then  concluding  that  the  huge  pile 
they  had  chopped  contained  considerable  more  than  a 
hundred  cords  they  called  for  their  pay.  On  measuring 
the  amount  done,  the  sum  total  amounted  to  about 
twenty-three  cords,  thus  making  $46.00,  out  of  which 
they  had  spent  $48.00.  They  were  a  crestfallen  pair, 
but  their  employer,  while  laughing  at  their  discom- 
fiture, exclaimed,  "You  are  pretty  good  boys  and  I  will 
call  it  square." 

Mr.  Heldt's  next  job  was  hauling  wood  from  the 
mountains  to  the  city,  with  four  yoke  of  oxen  and  two 
log  wagons.  He  only  held  this  job  for  two  weeks,  for 
when  his  employer  found  fault  with  him,  the  lad's  high 
temper  would  not  endure  it  and  in  the  quarrel  which 
followed,  the  man  thinking  Mr.  Heldt  a  tenderfoot 
whom  he  could  bluff,  tried  to  cheat  him  out  of  his 
pay,  but  he  did  not  succeed,  Mr.  Heldt  turning  the 
tables  on  him  and  getting  his  money.  The  next  day 
Mr.  Heldt  happened  to  meet  Bob  Hagaman,  who  was 
clerk  and  recorder,  and  he  said  that  since  Bob  Hill, 
his  deputy,  was  going  to  Bannack,  as  private  secretary 
to  Governor  Edgerton,  the  place  was  vacant  and  Mr. 
Heldt  might  have  it  if  he  wanted  it.  Being  just  out  of 
a  job,  this  was  very  opportune,  and  Mr.  Heldt  began 
his  duties  immediately.  In  the  early  spring  of  1865, 
Bob  Hill,  having  misrepresented  Mr.  Hagaman  to  the 
governor,  secured  his  appointment  as  clerk  and  recorder 
in  Mr.  Hagaman's  place.  In  September  Mr.  Hill 
resigned  and  the  governor  appointed  Mr.  Heldt  in  his 
place,  for  he  had  continued  in  his  position,  in  spite 
of  the  change  of  superiors.  Until  November,  when  the 
new  clerk  and  recorder  was  elected,  he  performed  the 
duties  of  this  office,  and  after  the  election  he  remained 
with  the  new  official  until  June,  1866.  This  was  the 
first  election  held  in  Montana,  and  Mr.  Heldt  tells 
the  story  of  his  experiences  as  follows: 

"The  Democrats  in  those  days  outnumbered  the 
Republicans  in  Montana  by  about  ten  to  one.  I  went 
to  the  polls  to  vote  and  found  the  Democrats  in  pos- 
session and  was  informed  that  Republicans  could  not 
vote.  I  said  nothing,  but  proceeded  at  once  to  find 
Colonel  Sanders,  who  was  the  Republican  candidate 
for  congress.  I  was  but  a  few  minutes  in  finding  him 
and  told  him  the  'Rebels'  had  possession  of  the  polls 
and  would  not  let  me  vote.  After  a  moment's  thought 
the  colonel  said,  'Let's  go  and  find  Colonel  Nelson  and 
Con  Orem,'  both  prize  fighters  and  both  good  Repub- 
licans. We  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  them,  and  the 
four  of  us  went  to  the  polls.  I  never  will  forget  the 
twinkle  in  Nelson's  eyes  and  the  expression  on  his 
face.  After  taking  in  the  situation  he  said  to  Orem, 
'Well.  Con.  we  will  have  to  make  a  passageway 
through  this  mob,'  and  pulled  off  his  coat,  and  Con 
pulled  ofif  his,  and  at  it  they  went,  and  I  at  their  heels. 
When  anyone  showed  any  hesitancy  about  stepping 
back  and  making  a  passage  it  was — Bifif !  they  fell  right 
and  left,  and  in  less  time  than  it  has  taken  me  to  tell  it, 
I  walked  to  the  polls  unmolested  and  deposited  my 
ballot." 

Mr.  Heldt  was  filled  with  delight  by  the  arrival  in 
March,  1866.  of  his  twin  brother,  John.  They  only  re- 
mained in  Virginia  City  for  a  few  months,  going  to 
Helena  in  June.  This  citv  was  now  on  the  "boom"  as 
the  former  had  been  in  1864.  The  brothers  took  up  a 
placer  claim  in  Thompson's  Gulch  about  eight  miles 
from   Helena    and    sunk   a    shaft   eighty-five    feet    deep. 


They  did  not  place  a  single  stick  of  timber  to  guard 
against  a  cave-in,  but  nothing  happened  and  since  they 
found  no  pay  streak  they  gave  up  mining  in  disgust. 
The  next  year  another  man  worked  this  claim,  and 
gathered  in  about  ten  thousand  dollars.  They  therefore 
returned  to  Virginia  City,  but  the  summer  of  1867  saw 
them  back  in  Helena.  John  Heldt  secured  a  position 
in  the  postoffice  and  his  brother  George  went  into  the 
United  States  marshal's  office  as  deputy  and  office  man. 
The  close  resemblance  of  the  two  brothers  was  the 
occasion  of  a  number  of  laughable  incidents,  among 
them  being  the  following.  They  boarded  at  the  St. 
Louis  restaurant,  of  which  Joe  Appolona,  an  Italian, 
was  the  proprietor.  John  ate  his  meals  an  hour  or  so 
before  George,  and  alter  they  had  been  boarding  at  the 
place  for  about  two  weeks.  Tommy,  the  Irish  waiter, 
began  to  observe  that  there  was  a  man  who  was  eating 
six  meals  a  day  instead  of  three.  He  thought  that  the 
fellow  must  have  been  starved  for  the  past  month,  and 
that  he  would  soon  get  filled  up.  But  no,  the  same 
thing  continued,  so  Tommy  considered  it  his  duty  to 
report  the  case  to  the  proprietor.  To  convince  him  that 
he  was  speaking  the  truth  he  dragged  his  master  in 
when  John  arrived  for  dinner,  pointed  him  out,  and 
said,  "Now,  in  about  two  hours  he  will  come  again." 
When  George  arrived,  he  therefore  grasped  the  pro- 
prietor's arm,  and  pointed  in  his  direction.  Joe  Appo- 
lona knew  them,  and  bending  double  with  laughter,  said, 
"That's  all  right,  Tommy,  he  pays  double."  It  was  a 
long  time  before  the  Heldt  twins  could  live  this  down. 
A  short  time  ago  an  article  appeared  in  a  St.  Paul 
paper  concerning  a  murder  which  had  been  committed 
by  George  M.  Pinney  in  Montana,  in  which  reference 
was  made  to  his  almost  losing  his  life  at  the  hands  of 
a  mob.  Mr.  Heidt  was  almost  an  eye  witness  on  this 
occasion,  having  just  left  the  room  where  Governor 
Beal  was  trying  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  Mr.  Pinney, 
when  the  shot  rang  out  and  Mr.  Heldt  rushed  back 
to  find  Beal  dead.  It  was  a  clear  case  of  self-defense, 
however,  and  Mr.  Pinney  was  tried  and  speedily  ac- 
quitted with  nothing  resembling  a  mob,  or  even  any 
threats  being  made  against  him. 

In  the  autumn  of  1868  J.  X.  Beidler  and  Mr.  Heldt 
as  deputy  United  States  marshals  went  to  Fort  Ben- 
ton to  arrest  some  men  who  had  been  plying  the 
whiskey  traffic  with  the  Indians.  The  trip  was  made  on 
horseback,  the  first  day's  journey  being  made  to  Dear- 
born Stage  Station,  and  the  afternoon  of  the  next  day 
finding  them  at  "Sun  River  Leaving"  where  the  road 
branched  off  towards  Fort  Benton.  The  two  men  were 
about  to  push  on,  when  the  stage  from  Benton  came 
into  sight,  the  mules  staggering  from  the  effort  they 
had  made,  for  the  coach  had  been  chased  by  a  war 
party  of  Indians  almost  to  within  sight  of  the  station. 
The  best  plan  was  to  remain  at  the  station  over  night 
and  then  start  in  the  morning  with  fresh  horses  so 
that  if  the  Indians  were  met,  they  might  run  for  their 
lives  if  necessary.  The  next  morning  the  horses  were 
allowed  to  walk,  and  for  about  twelve  miles  nothing 
disturbed  the  peace  of  the  fresh  morning,  then  after 
crossing  a  low  bottom  and  coming  out  on  the  bench 
land,  a  band  of  about  twenty-five  Indians  appeared.  It 
was  impossible  for  the  two  men  to  retreat,  it  was 
simply  against  their  natures,  so  deciding  that  there 
would  be  a  few  "good"  Indians  to  their  credit,  even 
if  they  finally  had  to  retreat  they  proceeded  on  their 
way,  though  Mr.  Heldt  remarked,  "If  there  were  twenty- 
five  of  us  and  two  Indians  I  believe  I  would  feel  more 
comfortable."  All  of  their  preparations  went  for 
nought,  for  on  a  nearer  approach,  the  leader  of  the 
band  was  seen  to  be  Indian  Jack,  and  after  exchanging 
a  friendly  "How,  how,"  they  passed  on,  Indian  Jack 
being  friendly  to  the  white  men.  This  was  rare  during 
that  year  for  the  Indians  were  hostile  throughout  the 
whole  country.  Travelers  were  waylaid  everywhere, 
and  many  travelers  lost  their  lives  on  the  road  between 


944 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


Fort  Shaw  and  Helena,  the  savages  becoming  so  bold 
as  to  attack  men  within  twenty  miles  of  Fort  Benton. 

In  1865  an  Indian  war  threatened,  and  the  pioneers 
will  never  forget  that  time.  General  Meagher,  then 
acting  governor,  called  for  volunteers,  and  among  the 
number  of  brave  men  who  sprang  to  his  call,  was 
Mr.  Heldt.  He  had  met  General  Meagher  several 
times  when  they  were  both  with  the  army  of  the 
Potomac,  and  when  he  offered  to  serve  for  the  Indian 
war,  the  general  said,  "You  remain  with  me,  you  have 
done  your  share  of  the  lighting;  I  may  need  you  here 
before  this  trouble  ends."  After  the  Indian  matters 
were  settled,  Mr.  Heldt  went  to  Fort  Shaw  as  clerk 
in  the  quartermaster's  department.  General  De  Tro- 
briand  was  stationed  here  in  command  of  the  Thirteenth 
United  States  Infantry,  and  it  was  during  this  winter 
that  Colonel  Baker  gave  the  Piegan  Indians  a  lesson 
that  they  never  forgot.  The  temperature  was  forty 
below  zero,  and  the  march  to  the  camp  of  the  Indians 
was  made  through  the  snow  and  by  night.  The  sur- 
prise, however,  was  complete,  and  the  Piegan  Indians 
never  again  went  on  the  warpath. 

In  the  spring  of  1870  Mr.  Heldt  resigned  his  position 
to  accept  that  of  bookkeeper  and  general  utility  man 
for  the  post  trader,  having  in  addition  to  his  other 
duties  those  of  postmaster,  stage  agent  and  express 
agent.  For  eighteen  years  he  remained  in  this  position, 
or  positions,  and  among  the  joys  of  his  life  was  that  of 
his  duty  as  postmaster  of  arising  every  morning,  with 
the  thermometer  often  at  forty  below,  and  the  hour  be- 
tween one  and  three,  to  receive  the  mail  and  express 
matter  from  the  stage  en  route  from  Helena  to  Ben- 
ton. In  1873  Mr.  Heldt  was  honored  by  election  to 
the  legislature  from  the  northern  portion  of  Lewis  and 
Clark  county.  In  these  days  there  was  no  such  thing 
as  even  a  whisper  of  bribes.  If  any  one  was  even  sus- 
pected of  being  a  grafter  he  was  ordered  from  the 
country,  and  the  government  was  run  by  a  set  of 
honest  straightforward  men,  not  politicians.  The 
capital  was  located  in  Virginia  City,  and  when  Governor 
Potts  called  a  special  session,  it  meant  a  trip  of  225 
miles,  to  be  accomplished,  but  it  was  a  relief  to  some 
of  the  members  when  during  the  regular  session  the 
capital  was  moved  to  Helena. 

On  the  22nd  of  December,  1874,  Mr.  Heldt  was 
married  to  Miss  Mary  Watson,  of  Virginia  City,  the 
occasion  being  celebrated  by  a  big  dance  which  was 
tendered  the  popular  young  people  by  their  friends. 
Their  honeymoon  consisted  of  a  two  days'  ride  on 
the  Gilmer  and  Salisbury  stage  to  Helena,  where  they 
remained  for  a  few  days.  On  the  morning  which  they 
had  set  for  their  departure  for  their  home  in  Fort 
Shaw,  the  weather  which  had  hitherto  been  mild,  had 
again  turned  cold,  and  there  was  now  several  inches  of 
snow  where  there  had  been  none  before.  This  did  not 
deter  them,  however,  and  they  climbed  aboard  the 
stage  and  set  out.  Soon  the  snow  was  axle-deep,  and 
shortly  after  passing  Dearborn  station,  which  they 
reached  that  night,  the  driver  lost  his  way.  The  pros- 
pect of  wandering  around  on  the  prairie  all  night,  with 
the  snow  two  feet  deep,  and  the  thermometer  standing 
at  forty  below  zero,  was  not  inviting.  At  last,  almost 
by  chance  they  found  the  road  again,  and  reached  the 
next  station  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning.  At  last 
the  bride  and  groom  arrived  at  Fort  Shaw,  having  been 
twenty-six  hours  making  the  journey,  after  a  honey- 
moon that  was  a  bit  more  thrilling  than  even  they 
cared  to  experience  again.  Until  1888  Mr.  Heldt  re- 
mained in  Fort  Shaw,  and  then  selling  the  J.  H.  Mc- 
Knight  Company  business  with  which  he  had  been 
connected  he  moved  to  Great  Falls,  Montana,  where 
he  has  since  resided. 

Mr.  Heldt  has  had  many  experiences  in  hunting 
buffalo,  and  like  all  others  who  were  in  the  west 
during  the  years  when  the  buffalo  was  a  common  ob- 
ject,   can    not   understand    their    sudden    disappearance. 


He  tells  a  story  of  a  buffalo  hunt  that  took  place  in 
1872.  About  ten  miles  northeast  of  the  point  where 
the  city  of  Great  Falls  now  stands,  the  party  found 
the  herd.  It  is  impossible  to  say  how  many  buffalo 
were  in  the  herd,  for  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach, 
the  prairie  was  black  with  the  huge,  shaggy  beasts! 
There  -were  at  least  a  hundred  thousand,  and  probably 
many  more.  It  was  during  this  hunt  that  Mr.  Heldt 
had  a  hairbreadth  escape.  He  wounded  a  buffalo 
bull  so  severely  that  he  could  not  travel,  and  stood 
looking  piteously  at  him.  Mr.  Heldt  therefore,  got 
down  from  his  horse  that  he  might  make  more  certain 
of  his  shot  and  so  relieve  the  poor  beast's  sufferings 
as  quickly  as  possible.  He  was  about  fifty  feet  away 
from  the  buffalo,  when  suddenly  the  animal  came  to 
life  and  leaped  forward  in  great  jumps,  head  down. 
Mr.  Heldt  made  a  flying  leap  for  his  saddle,  per- 
forming a  feat  that  would  have  made  him  worth  much 
money  to  P.  T.  Barnum,  could  he  have  been  a  witness, 
and  putting  spurs  to  his  horse  when  the  buffalo  was  only 
five  feet  distant.  Up  until  1875-6  the  J.  H.  McKnight 
Company  bought  from  the  Indians  and  half-breeds  about 
five  thousand  robes  during  the  season,  and  after  that 
year  they  could  buy  none,  so  abruptly  did  the  bison 
vanish. 

The  first  fire  department  in  Virginia  City,  or  in  fact, 
in  Montana,  was  organized  in  1865.  The  apparatus  con- 
sisted of  a  truck,  two  ladders  and  two  hooks.  The 
name  of  the  company  was  the  Hook  and  Ladder  Com- 
pany, No.  I,  and  Mr.  Heldt  was  the  secretary.  One  of 
his  chief  treasures  is  his  belt,  inscribed  with  the  letters, 
"Secretary,  Hook  and  Ladder  Co.  No.  i."  The  uniform 
was  made  up  of  a  pair  of  black  doe  skin  trousers,  red 
flannel  shirt  and  red  cap.  On  the  Fourth  of  July,  1865, 
in  the  midst  of  rain  and  snow,  they  had  their  first 
great  parade,  in  which  the  center  of  interest  was  a 
six-horse  Wells-Fargo  coach.  At  the  firemen's  ball 
which  took  place  in  the  evening,  the  tickets  sold  for 
$10.00  apiece.  Mr.  Heldt  was  also  the  first  city  mar- 
shal in  Montana,  serving  in  Virginia  City,  and  he  is 
the  oldest  notary  public,  with  a  continuous  record  for 
service,  in  the  state.  He  was  first  commissioned  by 
Governor  Edgerton,  who  was  the  first  governor  of 
Montana,  and  since  that  time  he  has  served  without  a 
break. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Heldt  became  the  parents  of  two  chil- 
dren, both  of  whom  were  girls  and  both  born  in  Mon- 
tana. Florence  R.  is  now  the  wife  of  Captain  L.  J. 
Fleming,  of  United  States  Cavalry.  The  youngest 
daughter,  Frances  Gibbon,  at  present  living  at  home, 
being  unmarried.  Mrs.  Heldt  died  on  the  8th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1903,  at  Great  Falls,  and  is  buried  in  the  family 
lot  at  Helena,   Montana. 

Joseph  Miller  Lindley.  Few  citizens  have  beerr 
more  closely  identified  with  the  interests  of  Bozeman 
than  Joseph  Miller  Lindley,  whose  activities  in  this  city 
have  extended  over  a  period  of  forty-seven  years,  dur- 
ing which  time  he  has  held  high  rank  in  business,  pub- 
lic and  social  life.  Although  his  business  interests  have 
been  large,  he  has  found  time  to  associate  himself  with 
earnest  and  hard-working  bodies  with  the  city  welfare 
at  heart,  and  the  services  he  has  rendered  his  commu- 
nity cannot  be  overestimated.  Mr.  Lindley  was  born 
August  6,  1840,  near  Vernon,  Indiana,  and  is  a  son  of 
James  M.  and  Melissa  (Biggs)  Lindley,  the  former  a 
native  of  New  York,  who  died  in  Indiana  at  the  age 
of  forty-five  years.  He  was  one  of  the  pioneer  farmers 
of  the  Hoosier  state,  whence  he  had  been  taken  by  his 
parents  in  childhood.  His  wife  was  a  native  of  Indi- 
ana, but  spent  her  last  years  at  the  home  of  one  of  her 
five  children,  in  Hastings,  Nebraska. 

Joseph  Miller  Lindley  continued  to  reside  on  the  home 
farm  until  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  secured  his 
primary  education  in  the  district  schools.  In  1857  he 
joined  a  party  en  route  to  Minnesota   for  the  purpose 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


947 


and  of  perils,  whence  only  the  courageous  dared  to  come, 
and  where  but  few  could  hope  to  win  success.  Such  has 
been  the  nature  of  the  American  people,  however,  that 
their  ambitions  have  always  taken  them  to  the  new 
places,  causing  them  to  cast  their  lot  with  those  who 
pave  the  way  for  civilization,  and  every  section  of  the 
East  contributed  to  its  full  quota  to  the  population  of 
the  new  country.  From  the  state  of  Vermont  came 
many  who  were  to  represent  the  best  type  of  citizenship 
during  the  early  days,  and  among  these,  one  who  ex- 
perienced all  the  hardships  and  privations  of  pioneer  ex- 
istence is  Christopher  H.  Waterman,  of  Bozeman,  a 
resident  of  Montana  since  1864.  Mr.  Waterman  was 
born  in  Rutland  countv,  Vermont,  January  24,  1826,  and 
is  a  son  of  John  and  Caroline  (Hilhard)  Waterman, 
Vermonters  by  birth,  who  eventually  removed  to  the 
Holland  purchase  in  western  New  York,  where  they 
spent  the  rest  of  their  lives  in  agricultural  pursuits, 
the  father  dying  when  forty-five  years  of  age,  and  the 
mother  passing  away  when  eighty-one.  They  had  a 
family  of  eight  children,  of  whom  Christopher  H.  is  the 
onlv  survivor. 

Christopher  H.  Waterman  was  reared  to  manhood  on 
the   New   York  homestead,  whence  he  had  been  taken 
when  he  was  but  one  year  old,  and  his  education  was 
secured    in    the    district    and    select    schools.      He    was 
twenty  vears  of  age  when  he  left  home  to  go  to  Michi- 
gan, but  after  a  year  returned  to  New  York  and  adopted 
a    seafaring    life,    a    vocation    which    he    continued    for 
fourteen  years.    During  this  time  he  served  as  first  mate 
on  some  of  the  finest  vessels  afloat,  and  for  seven  years 
was  captain  of  smaller  craft.     In  1851  he  went  to  Cali- 
fornia, and  for  two  years  sailed  on  vessels  running  out 
of  San  Francisco,  and  then,  with  others,  obtained  con- 
trol of  an  island  lying;  to  the  west  of  that  city,  where 
they  engaged  in  securing  seal  oil,  eggs,   furs,  etc.,  and 
within  two  months  had  marketed  10,000  dozen  of  eggs 
at    $1.00    per    dozen,    and    sold    $3,000    worth    of    seal 
oil,  the  venture  netting  them  a  neat  profit.     Mr.  Water- 
man then  returned  to  New  York,  and  as  first  mate  of 
a   large   vessel    started    for   Havre,   France,   and   at   the 
New  London  Hotel  in  that  city  met  and  married  Miss 
Catherine  Boyle,  a  sister  of  the  landlady  of  the  hotel. 
She  was  born  in  Paisley,  Renfrewshire,  Scotland,  June 
13,    1835,    daughter    of    John    and    Catherine    (Devlin) 
Boyle,  natives  of  the  Emerald  Isle.    Her  father  was  em- 
ployed for  many  years  in  the  gas  works  at  Paisley  and 
Glasgow,  Scotland,  and  died  March  i,  1842,  at  the  age 
of  forty-seven  years.     His  wife  long  survived  him,  com- 
ing to  the  United   States  with  her  children,  and  dying 
November  21,   1887,  at  the  venerable  age  of  eighty-six, 
being  then  an  inmate  of  the  home  of  her  daughter,  Mrs. 
Henry  Monforton,  of  Bozeman.     Mrs.  Waterman  is  the 
only    survivor    of   her    family    of    nine    children.      The 
youngest  brother,  Capt.  Peter  T.  Boyle,  served  gallantly 
in  the  Sixty-third  Regiment,  New  York_  Volunteer  In- 
fantry, during  the  Civil  war,  and  met  his  death  in  the 
Battle  of  the  Wilderness,  .May  5,  1864.     Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Waterman  have  had  three  children,  as  follows :     Jerome 
B.,  born  December  17,  1862,  and  died  October  26,  191 1, 
married   (first)    Miss  Dora  Sales,  by  whom  he  had  one 
son,  Fred,  and  after  her  death  married   (second)    Rose 
V.  Johnston ;  Catherine  L.,  who  married  William  L.  Mc- 
Donnell and  has  four  children,  Erval,  Annie  C.,  Cath- 
erine  and   Wm.   W. ;    and   Charles   R.,  born   in   Middle 
Creek,   Gallatin   county,   November  15,   i860,   elected   in 
1906  county  commissioner  for  a  term  of  two  years,  and 
re-elected  in  1908  for  six  years,  was  married  November 
7,  1894,  to  Miss  Mary  C.  Arnold,  and  has  four  children, 
Marie,  Evelyn,  Charles  A.  and  Edith  C.     The  marriage 
of  Mr.   and   Mrs.   Waterman  took  place   November  30, 
1S59,  Chaplain  E.  N.  Sawtelle,  United  States  chaplain  to 
the  port  of  Havre,  officiating  at  the  ceremony.     After 
reaching  the  United  States  the  ceremony  was  repeated 
by  Rev.  Father  Van  Gorp,  of  the  Catholic  church.    After 
his   marriage,   Mr.   Waterman    returned   to    New   York, 

Vol.  II  — T 


where  he  settled  his  maritime  affairs,  and  then  returned 
to  Havre,  France,  to  engage  in  business.     At  the  out- 
break  of   the    Civil   war    in    America    he    came   to    this 
country    and   settled    in    Saginaw,    Michigan,    where    he 
was  engaged  in  the  cooperage  business  until  1864,  at  that 
time  starting  for  Montana  (then  Idaho)  and  leaving  his 
wife  to   stay  at  the  home  of  her  mother  in   Brooklyn, 
New  York,  as  she  was  not  in  sufficiently  robust  health 
to  endure  the  trip.    At  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  Mr.  Water- 
man  secured  an   ox  team  and  wagon,  and  on   May  4, 
1864,  left  that  city  on  the  journey  across  the  plains,  one 
of  a  party  comprising  about  200  emigrants.     The  trip 
consumed  about  three  months,  and  Mr.  Waterman  came 
at  once  to  the  Gallatin  valley,  where  he  forthwith  took 
up  a  government  claim  of  160  acres,  and  to  this  original 
homestead   he   has   added   from   time   to    time   until   he 
now  has  a  magnificent  landed  estate  of  1800  acres,  in- 
cluding  the   ranches   which    he   provided    for    his    sons. 
Upon    his   original    little    farm    Mr.    Waterman    built   a 
primitive  log  cabin  of  the  regulation  frontier  type,  and 
made  every  possible  preparation  for  the  comfort  of  his 
wife,  who  was  to  join  him  as  soon  as  possible.     Mrs. 
Waterman    left    Brooklyn,    New    York,    July    17,    1865, 
with  her  infant  child,  to  go  to  meet  Mr.  Waterman  in 
Virginia    City,    Nevada.     The    trip    was    made   by    the 
water  route,  crossing  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  thence, 
proceeding  to  San   Francisco,  where  lived  her  brother, 
and  from  which  city  she  traveled  overland  by  stage  for 
the    rest    of    the   journey.     Arriving   in    Virginia    City, 
Nevada,  she  discovered  that  her  husband  was  in  Virginia 
City,  Idaho    (now   Montana),  and  accordingly  resumed 
her   long  and   perilous  journey.     This   country   was   at 
that  time  infested   with  hostile  Indians,   and  when   the 
stage    upon    which    she   was    traveling    reached    Austin, 
Nevada,  the  citizens  tried  to  persuade  her  to  give  up  the 
rest  of  the  journey,  as  the  stage  coach  ahead  had  been 
held   up,   looted  and  burned,  and  its  passengers  put  to 
death.      Finally   she    found   that   of   all    the   passengers, 
men  or  women,  she  alone  was  willing  to  take  the  risk, 
but  when  they  found  she  was  obdurate  in  her  decision, 
the   men    were    shamed   into    completing    the    trip,    and 
the  stage  finally  arrived  at  Virginia  City,  Idaho,  October 
21,  1865,  without  further  mishap.     Arriving  at  the  Plan- 
ters House,  a  primitive,  poorly-conducted  hostelry,  she 
there    received    the    news    that    the    Indians    had    gone 
through  the  valley  where  her  husband  was  located  and 
had  killed  every  white   settler,  but   not  long  afterward 
she  met  James  McCormick,  a  brother  of  Paul  McCor- 
mick,  both  old  Montana  pioneers,  of  Bozeman,  who  in- 
formed  her  that   her  husband  was  alive  and   well   and 
living  near  him.    On  his  taking  a  note  to  Mr.  Waterman 
the  latter  lost  no  time  in  coming  to  Virginia  City  with 
an  ox  team,  the  journey  taking  three  days.     When  he 
had  reached  the  city,  Mr.  Waterman  paid  the  hotel  bill, 
which  had  become  eighty-two  dollars,  and  they  started 
bhck  for  the  little  log  cabin  home,  arriving  the  evening 
of  the  third  day.    It  was  already  dark  when  they  reached 
home,  and  while  Mr.  Waterman  was  turning  the  oxen 
loose,  he  placed  his   wife   in  a   rude  little  chair  which 
he  had  made   for  her,   inside  the  cabin.     The  air  was 
close  and  filled   with   smoke,  and  it   was  not  until   she 
had  been  asked  by  her  husband  to  take  off  her  wraps 
that  she  learned  that  what  she  had  thought  was  his  black- 
smith shop  was  to  be  her  home !     It  may  be  imagined 
what    this    meant    to    the    carefully    nurtured,     gentle 
woman,  whose  life  prior  to  this  time  had  been  one  of 
ease  and  luxury,  but  with  a  courage  that  has  made  pos- 
sible the  civilization  of  every  part  of  our  country,  she 
settled    down    to    assist    her    husband    and    to    do    her 
share    in    the    development    of    the    community.      From 
January,  1865,  to  July,  i8€i6,  Mrs.  Waterman  did  not  see 
a  white  woman.     Flour  was  thirty-five  dollars  per  sack, 
and   the   depredations   of  the   Indians   kept   the   settlers 
constantly  on  the  lookout.     On  one  occasion  the  com- 
manding officer  at  Fort  Ellis  sent  word  to  Mr.  Water- 
man to  be  armed  and  ready,  for  the  Indians  were  com- 


948 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


ing  and  he  could  not  leave  the  post.  The  few  settlers 
kept  an  outpost  to  warn  them  so  that  they  might  flee 
to  the  refuges  which  they  had  prepared,  if  the  Indians 
approached,  and  all  of  the  women  went  into  Bozeman 
for  greater  safety,  with  the  exception  of  Mrs.  Water- 
man, who  refused  to  leav.e  her  husband  at  the  little 
home.  During  the  year  1866  a  band  of  friendly  Indians 
camped  near  the  Waterman  ranch,  and  the  chief  of  the 
band  became  very  much  attached  to  Mrs.  \yaterman, 
offering  her  husband  "heaps,  heaps,  heaps  ponies  for  his 
pretty  white  squaw !" 

The  family  continued  to  reside  on  the  ranch  for 
eleven  years,  each  year  finding  Mr.  Waterman  further 
on  the  highroad  to  success,  the  early  days'  alarms  being 
forgotten  and  peace  and  prosperity  reigning  in  the  little 
home.  Owing  to  ill  health,  however,  Mr.  Waterman 
eventually  rented  the  ranch  and  moved  to  Maryland, 
where  for  several  years  the  family  lived  on  a  farm,  but 
subsequently  removed  back  to  the  old  Montana  home. 
The  farm  is  under  high  cultivation,  with  the  best  of 
improvements,  including  a  fine  country  residence,  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  former  little  log  "blacksmith 
shop."  In  1889  Mr.  Waterman  purchased  an  attractive 
residence  property  in  Bozeman,  at  559  West  Main  street, 
and  here  the  family  passes  the  winter  months.  In  1901 
Mr.  Waterman  took  a  trip  to  New  York  to  visit  two 
sisters  whom  he  had  not  seen  in  thirty-seven  years. 

Politically  a  Republican,  Mr.  Waterman  served  for 
several  years  as  justice  of  the  peace,  and  in  1868  was  the 
candidate  of  his  party  for  representative  in  the  terri- 
torial legislature,  but  was  defeated  by  two  votes.  While 
a  resident  of  the  East,  many  years  ago,  Mr.  Waterman 
identified  himself  with  Odd  Fellowship,  and  was  also 
the  first  president  of  the  reorganized  Gallatin  County 
Pioneers'  Society.  Mrs.  Waterman  is  a  member  of  the 
Cathohc  church,  and  the  family  occupies  a  prominent 
place  in  the  religious  and  social  circles  of  Bozeman. 
Among  Mr.  Waterman's  most  highly  prized  possessions 
are  documents  showing  that  his  grandfather,  David  Wa- 
terman, enlisted  at  the  age  of  seventeen  years,  in  1777, 
in  the  Continental  army,  and  that  he  served  faithfully 
in  various  battles  of  the  Revolutionary  war.  On  Novem- 
ber 30,  1909,  was  celebrated  the  golden  wedding  anni- 
versary of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Waterman,  at  which,  in  addi- 
tion to  their  chidlren  and  nine  grandchildren,  friends 
from  all  over  the  country  were  present,  bearing  presents 
and  good  wishes  to  one  of  Montana's  most  highly  es- 
teemed pioneer  couples. 

Paul  Weydert.  The  late  Paul  Weydert  was  a 
Montana  pioneer  in  the  best  and  truest  sense  of  that 
old  familiar  word,  and  between  the  years  of  1864  and 
1901,  when  Mr.  Weydert  met  an  untimely  death  in  a 
runaway  accident,  he  was  identified  with  much  of  the 
growth  and  development  which  Montana  experienced 
in  that  half  century. 

A  native  son  of  Germany,  Paul  Weydert,  was  born 
on  the  1st  day  of  May,  1829,  in  Luxemburg,  Germany, 
and  was  the  son  of  Caspar  Weydert.  He  came  to 
America  in  1852,  having  previously  learned  the  trade 
of  a  wagon-maker  in  his  home  province.  He  was  a 
self-supporting  youth  from  the  age  of  sixteen,  and 
after  he  came  to  America  he  gave  his  undivided  atten- 
tion to  his  trade  until  he  moved  to  Montana  in  1864. 

The  circumstances  of  his  trip  to  the  west  are  these 
in  brief:  The  young  man  had  married  in  St.  Paul, 
Minnesota,  where  he  had  settled  after  his  arrival  in 
America,  and  when  he  started  on  the  westward  journey, 
he  was  accompanied  by  his  young  wife  and  an  infant 
six  weeks  old.  Nothing  daunted,  the  courageous  couple 
made  the  start  with  the  others,  the  company  consisting 
of  a  train  of  one  hundred  and  sixteen  wagons  drawn 
by  oxen,  which  they  met  at  New  Ulm,  Minnesota,  and 
a  company  of  soldiers,  who  had  in  their  train  three 
hundred  wagons,  each  being  supplied  with  a  six-mule 
team.     They  were  thus  insured  against  the  attacks   of 


hostile  Indians,  who  ravaged  the  western  country  in 
those  early  days,  and  the  trip  was  made  in  perfect 
safety,  although  attended  by  one  or  two  unpleasant 
incidents.  They  crossed  Minnesota  and  Dakota,  and 
crossed  the  ^Missouri  river  on  steamboats.  Coming  to 
the  Yellowstone,  they  forded  that  stream  and  floated 
goods  in  the  wagon  beds,  driving  the  teams  and  cattle 
across.  At  this  point  two  men  were  lost  in  a  bed  of 
quicksand  which  they  encountered,  one  of  the  men 
being  Mr.  Weydert's  driver.  The  train  arrived  in 
Helena,  or  rather  at  the  present  site  of  Helena,  on 
September  22,  1864,  after  being  four  months  on  the 
road. 

The  company  was  made  up  for  the  most  part  of  men 
who  had  gold-seeking  as  their  object  in  Montana,  and 
the  stay  of  the  party  at  Helena  was  but  brief,  the  party 
breaking  up  there  and  scattering  in  all  directions.  Mr. 
\yeydert  chose  the  Prickly  Pear  district  for  his  loca- 
tion and  he  and  his  family  wintered  in  a  cabin  which 
he  built.  Here  he  prospected  during  the  winter  months 
and  in  the  spring  of  1865  they  moved  to  Last  Chance, 
thence  on  to  Nelson  Gulch,  where  ]\Ir.  Weydert  built 
a  sturdy  little  log  cabin  for  his  family.  Being  a  me- 
chanic of  no  mean  ability,  he  was  able  to  produce  a 
praiseworthy  little  home  and  this  log  cabin  was  moved 
three  times,  finally  remaining  in  Helena.  Here  they 
lived  for  a  year,  after  which  Mr.  Weydert  went  to 
Hartwell's  Mill,  some  two  miles  over  the  range,  where 
they  spent  the  summer  of  '66.  Their  next  move  was 
to  Walker's  Mill,  where  they  lived  a  year.  Mr.  Weydert 
worked  in  the  sawmill  and  did  a  considerable  pros- 
pecting on  the  side  whenever  a  new  report  of  gold 
discoveries  was  made.  He  finally  gave  up  his  mill  work 
and  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  prospecting,  meet- 
ing with  a  fair  degree  of  success  in  the  work.  Later 
he  moved  to  Blue  Cloud  and  there  Mr.  Weydert  was 
employed  in  a  quartz  mill,  which  eventually  proved  a 
failure.  In  1867,  Mr.  Weydert  removed  with  his  fam- 
ily to  what  is  now  the  thriving  city  of  Helena,  and  to 
this  point  they  moved  the  little  house  he  had  built  at 
Nelson  Gulch.  The  cabin  was  moved  for  the  last 
time  in  1898,  and  stood  sturdy  and  stanch  as  a  reminder 
of  the  early  pioneer  times  until  within  the  past  few 
years.  The  family  occupied  it  at  intervals  until  1875, 
and  many  of  their  happiest  days  were  passed  within  its 
kindly  shelter. 

In  187s,  Mr.  Weydert  gave  up  prospecting  and  moved 
to  a  ranch  five  miles  from  Helena,  located  on  Ten 
Mile  creek,  but  he  removed  to  Helena  in  the  fall  of  * 
that  year  in  order  to  permit  his  growing  family  proper 
school  advantages,  or  at  least,  as  good  as  were  avail- 
able at  that  time  and  place.  In  1876  he  went  to  the 
Black  Hills  in  search  of  gold,  but  in  seven  months' 
time  returned  to  Helena.  Here  he  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  his  trade  of  wagon-making,  which  he  followed 
until  1881,  when  he  located  a  ranch  in  the  Judith 
Basin,  in  the  autumn  of  the  next  year  bringing  his 
family  to  live  upon  it.  The  place  is  located  a  mile 
and  a  half  from  Lewistown,  and  the  Chicago,  Milwau- 
kee &  St.  Paul  Railroad  runs  through  his  place.  This 
ranch,  which  under  his  careful  supervision,  came  to  be 
one  of  the  finest  places  in  the  Judith  Basin,  continued 
to  be  the  home  of  the  family  until  after  the  death  of 
Mr.  Weydert.  which  was  caused  on  October  3,  1901, 
by  his  being  dragged  by  a  runaway  horse.  Three  years 
thereafter  the  family  sold  the  ranch,  and  ]\_Irs.  Weydert 
now  makes  her  home  witii  her  only  surviving  daughter 
in    Lewistown. 

With  reference  to  the  family  of  Air.  W^eydcrt,  it 
may  be  said  here  that  his  wife  was  Alary  Geyermann. 
born  near  Coblentz,  Germany,  on  June  6.  1836.  She 
came  to  America  in  1854,  and  first  met  her  husband 
in  Aurora,  Illinois.  They  were  married  in  St.  Paul, 
Minnesota,  on  the  29th  of  June,  1859.  and  there  con- 
tinued to  make  their  home  until  their  departure  for 
the  West  in   1864.     Seven  children  were  born  to  these 


d.fU/.  (R^.^^^ 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


949 


parents,  concerning  whom  the  following  brief  mention 
is  made:  Susan,  the  first  born,  died  in  St.  Paul,  Mm- 
nesota,  aged  sixteen  months ;  Theodore,  born  near 
Shakopee,  .Minnesota,  died  at  the  age  of  thirteen 
months;  Peter  C.  is  now  a  resident  of  California, 
where  he  is  engaged  in  ranching.  He  it  was  who  was 
an  infant  in  his  mother's  arms  when  the  family  left 
bv  wagon  train  for  the  West.  He  has  been  engaged 
in  business  in  California  for  the  past  five  years,  and 
his  mother  spends  much  of  her  time  with  him  in  his 
home  there;  Lena  died  in  1903,  the  wife  of  tienry  C. 
Fletcher  and  the  mother  of  three  sons;  Anna  M.,  now 
Mrs.  George  J.  Wiedeman,  of  Lewistown;  Augusta  E., 
born  in  1872,  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  her  death 
occurring  in  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  while  she  was  m 
attendance  at  the  State  Normal  school  of  that  place; 
and  N.  Albert,  born  in  1874,  now  a  resident  of  Ingomar, 
Montana.  „    ,    ,. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Weydert  were  devout  Catholics  in 
their  early  life.  The  husband  and  father  was  a  quiet 
home  man,  more  addicted  to  peaceful  habits  than  the 
average  westerner  is  expected  to  be.  He  was  a  Repub- 
lican, and  while  enthusiastic  and  energetic  in  the  work 
of  the  party,  he  was  never  an  office  seeker.  He  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  public  school  systems  and  in 
the  early  .days  was  a  trustee  of  the  schools  in  his  com- 
munity, his  interest  in  local  conditions  always  being 
marked  by  the  most  unselfish  motives  and  his  efforts 
resulting  in  undeniable  good  to  the  communal  life. 

Charles  W.  Cook.  Born  in  New  England,  that 
cradle  of  so  much  of  our  national  history,  in  youth 
Charles  W.  Cook  followed  the  star  of  empire  west- 
ward and  here  has  spent  nearly  fifty  active  and  useful 
years.  He  is  a  pioneer,  his  arrival  here  having  been 
on  September  22,  1864,  and  it  has  been  his  good  fortune 
to  witness  as  marvelous  a  period  of  development  as  a 
new  country  has  ever  experienced.  He  knows  the 
perilous,  hard,  thrilling  life  of  the  early  settler  and  al- 
though the  rough  life  of  the  early  days  sometimes  brought 
him  so  near  to  death  that  he  felt  its  icy  breath  on  his 
cheek,  his  courage  never  faltered.  His  has  been  the 
romantic,  typical  western  life  which  changing  condi- 
tions has  rendered  now  a  matter  of  history.  He  has 
rubbed  shoulders  with  Indians  and  outlaws  and  the  re- 
countal  of  his  adventures  is  calculated  to  make  young 
blood  thrill.  Mr.  Cook  has  shared  the  good  fortunes  of 
Montana  and  has  extensive  ranching  interests,  his  large 
property  being  located  a  few  miles  from  White  Sulphur 
Springs.  He  carries  on  extensive  operations  in  sheep 
growing  and  is  sheep  inspector  of  Meagher  county. 

Mr.  Cook  was  born  in  Unity,  Waldo  county,  Maine. 
February  24,  1839,  and  there  resided  until  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years,  when  he  went  to  Providence.  Rhode 
Island,  to  attend  college  and  continued  a  student  there 
for  three  years.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  education 
he  lost  no  time  in  starting  for  Montana,  whose  glories 
had  been  painted  to  him  in  glowing  colors.  He  came 
west  as  far  as  St.  Joe,  Missouri,  by  rail,  and  then 
came  by  boat  to  Omaha,  at  which  place  he  bought  a 
team  and  drove  through  to  Denver.  At  Denver  he  sold 
the  team  and  hired  out  to  an  outfit  to  come  to  Montana, 
his  duties  being  to  drive  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
head  of  cattle  through  to  Virginia  City,  Montana.  This 
was  successfully  accomplished  and  Mr.  Cook  reached 
tlie  state  on  September  22,  1864,  and  has  remained 
within  its  splendid  boundaries  ever  since  that  time.  He 
drifted  over  into  the  Diamond  City  district  and  followed 
mining  here  for  about  six  years.  Following  that  he 
was  appointed  receiver  for  a  milling  company  at  Old 
Gallatin  City  and  remained  there  for  two  years,  and 
after  settling  up  its  affairs  he  went  into  California  and 
Oregon,  where  he  bought  a  band  of  sheep  and  drove 
them  into  Montana.  They  were  the  nucleus  of  what 
was  to  develop  into  a  vast  sheep  and  wool  growing  in- 
dustry,  Meagher   county  being  chosen   as   the  scene   of 


his  operations.  He  has  acquired  one  of  the  fine  ranches 
in  this  section  and  has  ever  since  the  year  1871  been  one 
of  the  principal  factors  in  this  business.  His  residence 
is  maintained  at  White  Sulphur  Springs. 

The  subject's  father,  Daniel  Cook,  was  born  in  Maine 
and  lived  in  the  Pine  Tree  State  all  his  life.  He  fol- 
lowed farming  and  contracting.  His  wife  before  her 
marriage  was  Elizabeth  T.  Hussey,  also  of  Maine.  Both 
lived  to  advanced  years,  the  mother  dying  in  1899  at  the 
age  of  ninety,  and  the  father  preceding  her  in  1879 
when  about  seventy-five  years  old.  These  fine  people 
are  buried  side  by  side  near  the  old  homestead.  There 
were  six  children  in  the  elder  Cook  family,  Mr.  Coolc, 
immediate  subject  of  this  review,  being  the  fourth  in 
order  of  birth.  There  is  another  brother  in  Montana, 
Benjamin  B.  Cook,  who  is  married  and  resides  at 
Great  Falls. 

Mr.  Cook  earned  his  first  money  as  a  boy  at  the  age 
of  about  fourteen  years,  by  working  on  a  neighbor's 
farm  at  the  princely  salary  of  five  dollars  a  month,  all 
of  which  he  gave  to  his  mother.  When  fifteen  he  virtu- 
ally ran  his  father's  farm,  his  father's  contracting  work 
taking  him  away  from  home  a  great  deal.  The  lad  re- 
ceived his  early  education  in  the  district  schools  of 
Maine  and  then  entered  Oak  Grove  Seminary  at  Vas- 
selboro,  Maine,  and  having  pursued  his  preparatory 
studies  there,  entered  college  at  Providence,  Rhode 
Island. 

He  is  a  prominent  Mason,  belonging  to  all  the  orders 
from  the  blue  lodge  to  the  Shrine  and  he  has  been  mas- 
ter of  the  blue  lodge  of  Whitjp  Sulphur  Springs.  His  po- 
litical faith  is  pinned  to  the  policies  and  principles  of  the 
Republican  party  and  he  has  for  a  long  time  taken  an 
active  and  effective  part  in  politics,  his  word  being  of 
influence  in  party  councils.  He  at  one  time  held  the 
office  of  county  commissioner  to  the  satisfaction  of  all 
concerned  and  he  is  now  sheep  inspector  of  Meigher 
county.  He  has  a  postoffice  on  his  ranch  and  was  ap- 
pointed postmaster  of  the  same  by  President  Grant, 
holding  the  office  continuously  ever  since.  Among  his 
several  distinctions  is  that  of  being  one  of  the  three 
men  to  discover  Yellowstone  National  Park,  they  being 
the  first  white  men  to  set  foot  within  that  magnificent 
region.  This  came  about  through  their  following  the 
Yellowstone  river  to  investigate  its  source  and  in  this 
way  wandering  into  the  park.  He  has  never  lost  his 
love  of  the  free  life  of  plain  and  mountain  and  thor- 
oughly enjoys  a  camping  expedition,  he  and  his  wife 
having  taken  many  delightful  trips,  some  of  this  nature 
and  some  farther  afield  and  of  more  conventional  char- 
acter. He  enjoys  the  finer  things  of  life,  good  books, 
pictures  and  music  and  is  an  avaricious  reader,  having 
a  fine  library  in  which  he  spends  considerable  time.  His 
education,  varied  experiences  and  genial  character  make 
him  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  men  and  an  unsur- 
passed conversationalist.  He  believes  that  Montana  has 
the  greatest  opportunities  and  best  prospects  of  any  state 
in  the  union— declares  that  the  matter  can't  be  figured 
out  in  any  other  way. 

On  June  26,  1880,  Mr.  Cook  laid  the  foundations  of 
a  happy  household  by  his  union  with  Abbie  W.  Kenni- 
cott,  daughter  of  James  H.  and  Abbie  W.  Kennicott, 
their  marriage  occurring  in  Helena.  Montana.  To  their 
union  have  been  born  three  children :  Mary  E.,  the 
eldest,  died  January  14,  1893;  Alice  Josephine  is  at 
home ;  and  Donald  H.  has  finished  the  curriculum  of 
the  White  Sulphur  Springs  school  and  is  now  in  col- 
lege at  Bozeman.  Their  home  is  one  of  the  most  hos- 
pitable and  delightful  in  the  city.  Mrs.  Cook  is  an  active 
worker  in  the  Presbyterian  church  and  in  the  Ladies' 
Aid  Society  connected  with  the  same.  She  is  also  a 
valued  member  of  the  Travel  and  Study  Club.  Like 
her  husband,  she  is  of  New  England  stock,  her  father 
having  been  a  native  of  Rhode  Island.  He  traveled 
about  the  country  a  good  deal  and  finally  located  in 
Nebraska    City,    Nebraska,    where    he    followed    black- 


950 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


smithing  and  farming.  He  passed  away  in  that  place 
in  April,  1880,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six  years.  The 
mother  lived  to  the  age  of  eighty-two.  Mrs.  Cook  has 
a  sister  in  this  state,  Jennie  K.  Lewis,  widow  of  Len 
Lewis,  residing  in  White  Sulphur  Springs. 

Mr.  Cook  occasionally  grows  reminiscent  and  looks 
back  over  the  early  days.  One  incident  remains  par- 
ticularly vivid  with  him  and  was  a  part  of  his  adven- 
tures vvhen  driving  the  herd  of  cattle  through  to  Mon- 
tana. One  day  he  was  surrounded  by  a  band  of  In- 
dians, who  insisted  that  the  young  collegian  share  the 
cattle  with  them.  He  held  out  for  a  while,  but  there 
were  too  many  of  them  and,  as  he  expresses  it,  he 
"finally  traded  them  a  steer  for  a  scalp,"  the  scalp  being 
his  own — or  the  privilege  of  keeping  it.  He  declares 
this  the  best  trade  he  ever  made. 

Charles  F.  W.  Lehman.  It  is  generally  conceded 
that  the  late  Charles  F.  W.  Lehman  was  one  of  the 
most  widely  known  and  best  beloved  citizens  of  this 
section  of  the  state,  with  which  he  was  identified  in 
various  ways  from  the  early  seventies  up  to  the  time 
of  his  death,  which  occurred  on  March  19,  191 1.  Born 
in  Melrose,  Germany,  on  August  15,  1828,  Air.  Lehman 
left  his  home  when  a  boy  of  fourteen  years  and  went 
to  Berlin,  where  he  was  for  something  like  two  years 
associated  with  some  horse  traders,  but  his  mother 
finally  prevailed  upon  him  to  return  home.  His  stay 
in  his  home  was  not  permanent,  however,  for  in  less 
than  two  years  he  was  found  bound  for  America,  and 
he  landed  in  New  York  without  knowing  a  word  of 
the  English  language.  To  further  complicate  matters, 
the  boy  was  sick  and  was  sent  to  EUis  Island  hospital. 
He  had  no  money,  and  when  he  recovered  sufficiently  he 
secured  employment  in  the  sick  ward,  where  he  re- 
mained for  a  number  of  months.  His  knowledge  of 
German  was  especially  valuable  in  the  detention  hos- 
pital and  was  a  welcome  sound  to  many  a  homesick 
emigrant.  From  New  York  Mr.  Lehman  finally  went 
to  Connecticut,  where  he  located  at  New  Caanan  and 
secured  work  on  a  farm,  and  in  that  place  he  inci- 
dentally picked  up  a  working  knowledge  of  the  stone 
cutter's  trade.  This  knowledge  he  later  put  to  prac- 
tical use  while  in  the  employ  of  the  southern  railroads, 
in  putting  in  tunnels  and  foundations  at  various  points 
along  their  lines. 

When  Mr.  Lehman  gave  up  railroad  work  he  went 
to  Nashville,  Tennessee,  and  there  engaged  in  contract- 
ing in  stone  work.  At  this  place  he  had  many  inter- 
esting experiences,  and  one  affair  in  particular  is  es- 
pecially worthy  of  mention  in  this  connection.  In  the 
instance  in  hand  Mr.  Lehman  took  a  contract  where 
the  stone  was  to  be  furnished  by  convict  labor,  a  circum- 
stance which  aroused  the  hostility  of  the  unions.  They 
hired  a  man  to  redress  their  wrongs  by  the  simple 
method  of  killing  off  Mr.  Lehman,  and  the  champifin 
of  the  workmen  went  to  the  hotel  where  Mr.  Lehman 
was  staying,  fully  prepared  to  discharge  his  obligations 
to  the  unions  in  particular  and  to  society  in  general. 
Fortunately  for  Mr.  Lehman,  his  assailant  was  not  a 
dead  shot,  and  the  first  bullet  went  wide  of  its  mark. 
Moreover,  the  mark  calmly  arose  from  his  seat,  ad- 
vanced slowly  toward  the  would-be  assassin,  who,  un- 
nerved by  the  unexpected  demeanor  of  his  intended 
victim,  sent  his  remaining  shots  at  random.  Mr.  Leh- 
man laid  hold  upon  the  thug,  wrested  the  gun  from 
him  and  threw  him  out  of  the  hotel.  This  little  pass- 
age decided  the  unions  upon  other  tactics,  and  they 
attempted  to  reason  with  him  on  another  line  of  argu- 
ment, after  which,  Mr.  Lehman,  for  a  consideration, 
agreed   to  leave  the  city. 

The  Civil  war  broke  out  just  about  this  time  and 
Mr.  Lehman  went  to  St.  Joe,  Missouri  where  he  con- 
tinued his  business  of  contracting.  In  the  Missouri  city 
he  accepted  the  office  of  the  first  street  commissioner  of 
St.   Joe   and   it   was   while   holding   this   office   that   he 


formed  a  partnership  with  Henry  Krug  and  a  Mr. 
Hax.  Together  they  organized  a  wagon  train  and 
started  for  Denver,  where  it  was  their  intention  to  open 
a  general  store.  After  a  few  days'  journey  the  caravan 
was  attacked  by  Indians  and  Mr.  Lehman's  followers 
refused  to  go  farther.  All  but  one  man  deserted,  and 
perforce,  Mr.  Lehman,  Mr.  Krug  and  their  sole  ad- 
herent, returned  to  St.  Joe  with  the  outfit.  A  second 
party  was  organized,  this  time  including  a  number  of 
old  German  war  veterans,  and  this  company  made  the 
trip  in  safety,  although  they  had  one  scrimmage  with 
the  Indians.  As  he  had  planned,  Mr.  Lehman  engaged 
in  the  mercantile  business  and  conducted  his  establish- 
ment successfully  until  the  completion  of  the  railroad. 
His  roving  spirit  again  manifested  itself,  and,  no  longer 
pleased  with  Denver,  he  sold  out  to  his  partners,  Krug 
&  Hax.  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  at  that  time  he 
owned  the  land  where  the  capitol  now  stands  in  Den- 
ver, but  he  disposed  of  it  with  his  other  holdings  at 
whatever  price  he  could  get,  and  went  to  Leadville. 
He  did  not  make  a  long  stop  in  that  city,  but  soon 
prepared  for  another  long  overland  trip,  this  time  mak- 
ing California  his  objective  point.  For  a  number  of 
years  Mr.  Lehman  worked  in  the  placer  mines  of  Cali- 
fornia, and  he  made  some  money  in  his  work — sufficient 
that  when  he  went  to  Portland,  Oregon,  he  was  able 
to  buy  some  land  in  the  vicinity  of  Portland,  which  is 
now  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  From  Portland  he  went 
to  Boise,  Idaho,  on  a  prospecting  trip  with  the  Gilbert 
Company,  who  were  among  the  first  to  find  gold  in 
Idaho.  Mr.  Lehman  spent  two  years  in  that  state  in 
successful  mining  operations.  He  next  went  to  Walla 
Walla,  from  which  point  he  ran  a  pack  horse  train  into 
the  Blue  mountains  of  Idaho.  From  Walla  Walla  he 
went  to  Alder  Gulch,  Montana,  arriving  there  in  1864. 
and  since  that  date  Montana  has  been  his  home. 

After  a  short  interval  in  Bannack,  Mr.  Lehman  went 
to  Helena  where  he  went  into  the  mercantile  business 
again.  He  had  his  brother  as  a  partner,  and  this  firm 
l)ccame  the  leading  mercantile  one  in  Helena.  In  1871 
thev  dissolved  partnership,  each  launching  out  for  him- 
self. At  one  time  Mr.  Lehman  owned  and  operated 
six  stores  and  owned  several  valuable  blocks  in  the 
city.  He  continued  in  Helena  until  1893,  when  he  moved 
to  Utica,  at  which  point  he  had  important  interests, 
and  from  Utica  he  came  to  Lewistown  and  opened  the 
present  business  under  the  firm  name  of  Charles  Leh- 
man &  Company,  which  came  to  be  one  of  the  largest 
and  most  comprehensive  department  stores  in  the 
state  of  Montana. 

Mr.  Lehman  was  a  member  of  the  Lutheran  church, 
and  though  he  was  not  what  is  familiarly  termed  as  a 
church  worker,  he  was  a  faithful  practicer  of  the  "re- 
ligion, pure  and  undefiled,"  which  St.  James  described 
in  his  writings.  He  was  always  a  generous  and  charit- 
able man,  and  even  in  his  boyhood,  when  he  first  ran 
away  from  home,  he  did  not  forget  to  send  money  to 
his  mother  from  time  to  time.  His  benevolences  were 
unnumbered  and  his  generosity  unfailing.  It  is  possible 
that  his  admirable  qualities  were  best  known  to  mem- 
bers of  his  family,  for  he  was  an  ideal  husband  and 
father.  Unlike  many  men  of  strong  personality  and 
executive  ability,  he  recognized  similar  traits  in  his 
children,  and  did  not  hamper  them  or  endeavor  to  sup- 
press their  individuality  at  any  time.  He  devoted  his 
entire  energies  to  his  business  and  his  leisure  hours  were 
spent  in  the  midst  of  his  family.  Though  often  urged 
to  accept  public  office,  he  never  consented,  but  as  an 
individual  he  supported  the  Republican  party.  At  his 
death  the  entire  town  of  Lewistown  felt  a  sense  of 
loss,  and  during  the  hour  of  his  funeral  all  business 
was  suspended. 

Mrs.  Lehman,  too,  had  the  true  spirit  of  a  pioneer. 
She  is  a  German  by  birth,  the  daughter  of  Jacob  and 
Marie  Bach,  and  she  was  raised  in  New  York  City  and 
there    married.      Soon    after   their   marriage,    Mr.    Leh- 


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HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


951 


man  returned  to  the  west  with  his  bride,  making  the 
trip  by  way  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  thence  by  boat  to 
Fort  Benton,  making  the  trip  on  the  Silver  Bow,  the 
only  side-wheeler  that  ever  came  up  the  Missouri  river 
with  Captain  Ray.  When  they  finally  arrived  in  Helena 
on  June  lo,  1869,  it  was  after  a  stage  ride  of  twenty-four 
hours.  Eight  children  were  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Leh- 
man. The  only  daughter,  Helen,  is  now  the  wife  of 
Austin  Marr  of  Lewistown.  One  son,  Charles,  junior, 
died  in  San  Diego,  California,  in  1898.  G.  A.  C.  Leh- 
man lives  in  Pueblo,  Colorado,  where  he  is  rector  of  St. 
James'  parish.  The  other  sons  make  their  homes  in 
Lewistown.  Alexander  is  in  the  real  estate  business 
and  a  successful  man  in  that  field  of  enterprise,  while 
the  others  are  all  in  charge  of  various  departments  of 
the  business  which  their  lately  deceased  father  estab- 
lished. Alexander  and  Louis  J.  are  married,  but  Os- 
wald, Walter  and  Arthur  reside  with  their  mother. 
Alexander  has  the  honor  of  being  the  youngest  man 
ever  elected  to  the  legislature  of  the  state,  as  he  was 
chosen  to  that  office  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-one 
years.  Louis  J.  Lehman  is  general  manager  of  the 
store;  Oswald  has  charge  of  the  dry  goods  department; 
the  hardware  section,  the  grocery  and  the  office  are  in 
the  care  of  Walter,  while  to  Arthur  remains  the  direc- 
tion of  the  men's  furnishing  department.  All  are  par- 
ticularly suited  to  the  duties  of  their  separate  depart- 
ments, and  are  carrying  the  business  on  to  a  splendid 
state  of  efficiency.  It  was  the  happy  achievement  of 
Mr.  Lehman  not  only  to  be  a  factor  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  state  in  a  worthy  measure,  but  to  leave 
behind  him  those  who  would  carry  on  the  name  he 
had  made  known  and  continue  the  career  of  useful- 
ness and  service  in  which  he  acquitted  himself  so 
valiantly. 

Daniel  A.  G.  Flowerree,  deceased  Montana  pioneer, 
and  one  of  the  first  men  to  engage  in  the  cattle  busi- 
ness in  this  state,  was  born  in  Ralls  county,  Missouri, 
on  May  19,  1835,  and  died  at  Atlanta,  Georgia.  Novem- 
ber 22,  1912.  He  was  a  son  of  Kemp  and  Mathilda 
(Caldwell)  Flowerree,  the  father  a  native  of  Virginia, 
the  mother  of  Kentucky,  and  in  their  ancestry  were 
united  the  Scotch  Thistles  and  the  Lilies  of  France. 

Kemp  Flowerree  made  his  advent  into  the  state  of 
Missouri  in  the  year  1833,  and  there  for  many  years  he 
was  occupied  as  a  planter,  and  he  died  in  that  state  in 
the  year  1881.  His  widow  survived  him  six  years, 
passing  away  in  1887.  Of  their  family  of  three  sons  and 
four  daughters,  Daniel  Flowerree  was  the  only  Montana 
"resident.  Kemp  Flowerree  was  the  son  of  Walter,  who 
moved  from  Kentucky  to  Missouri  in  1822,  when  the 
rugged  fastnesses  of  that  state  made  it  similar  in  many 
respects  to  the  condition  of  Montana  in  its  pioneer  days. 
There  Walter  Flowerree  married  a  daughter  of  the  dis- 
tinguished Breckenridge  family  of  Kentucky,  a  family 
whose  brilliance  has  shed  luster  not  only  upon  its  native 
state,  but  upon  the  entire  nation. 

Daniel  A.  G.  Flowerree  passed  from  his  boyhood's 
care-free  days  to  early  manhood  in  his  native  state.  He 
early  conceived  and  consistently  fostered  the  belief  that 
the  west  offered  advantages  in  many  ways  superior  to 
those  of  the  east  or  middle  west,  and  in  1852  he  went 
to  California,  where  he  remained  until  1855.  In  that 
year  he  went  to  Nicaragua  and  in  1857  returned  to  Mis- 
souri, there  remaining  until  1864,  when  he  set  out  for 
Montana.  He  made  the  trip  across  the  plains  in  a  time 
when  the  path  of  the  traveler  was  beset  by  manifold 
hazards,  the  country  being  alive  with  Indians,  many  of 
them  hostile  and  treacherous  and  upon  mischief  bent. 
The  journey  was  made  by  stage  coach  via  Salt  Lake 
City,  and  on  March  16,  1864,  Mr.  Flowerree  arrived  at 
Virginia  City.  Here  he  passed  some  little  time  in  the 
business  of  prospecting  for  auriferous  deposits,  more  fa- 
miliarly known  in  common  parlance  as  "pay  dirt."  Later 
he  engaged  more  profitably  in  other  business  enterprises 


in  Virginia  City,  and  late  in  1865  he  came  to  Helena, 
then  called  Last  Chance  Gulch.  Since  that  time  Mr. 
Flowerree  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  and  suc- 
cessful business  men  of  Helena,  or,  indeed,  of  the  state. 
He  was  among  the  first  to  recognize  the  well  nigh 
inexhaustible  resources  of  the  state  of  Montana  as  a 
stock  growing  region,  and  was  also  one  of  the  first  to 
profit  by  this  knowledge.  He  was  one  of  the  largest 
stock  growers  and  owners  in  the  northwest  at  the  time 
of  his  death,  and  this  mammoth  business  was  purely  the 
outgrowth  of  his  own  early  business  ventures.  In  1865 
Mr.  Flowerree  had  brought  a  herd  of  cattle  from  Mis- 
souri, and  in  1870  and  1873  brought  fifteen  hundred 
more  from  Texas.  From  then  until  he  closed  his 
earthly  career  he  had  confined  his  attentions  almost  ex- 
clusively to  this  business.  In  1883  Mr.  Flowerree 
brought  a  band  of  horses  from  Oregon  and  previous  to 
that  time  had  brought  a  mammoth  herd  of  cattle  from 
the  same  state.  From  the  early  seventies  until  the  de- 
cline, in  some  measure,  of  the  Montana  cattle  business, 
Mr.  Flowerree  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  largest  grow- 
ers and  shippers  in  the  west.  His  holdings  of  ranch 
property  was  of  considerable  magnitude  in  Lewis  and 
Clark,  Teton,  Cascade  and  other  counties  at  the  time 
of  his  passing. 

The  same  general  shrewdness  and  foresight  which 
made  him  one  of  the  big  stockmen  of  the  state  in  the 
early  days  when  identification  with  those  interests  spelled 
immense  profits,  launched  Mr.  Flowerree  in  the  grape- 
fruit business  in  Florida,  near  Fort  Meyer.  Some  years 
ago  he  went  to  Florida  for  his  health,  and  it  was  at 
once  apparent  to  him  that  the  possibilities  of  the  country 
in  the  grapefruit  line  were  immense  and  he  accordingly 
purchased  large  holdings  which  he  planted  to  oranges 
and  grapefruit.  In  recent  years  he  was  one  of  the 
heaviest  individual  shippers  of  those  fruits  to  be  found 
anywhere  in  the  country.  He  was  in  many  senses  a 
pioneer,  indeed,  and  he  has  the  distinction  of  having 
built  the  first  shingle-roofed  houses  in  Helena  and  in 
Virginia  City.  The  one  in  Virginia  City  was  without 
doubt  the  first  two-story  house  to  be  erected  in  Montana. 

In  1858  Mr.  Flowerree  was  united  in  marriage  with 
Miss  Elizabeth  Wethers,  of  Missouri.  Four  children 
were  born  to  them  :  William  K.,  of  Great  Falls.  Mon- 
tana; Annie  M.,  wife  of  W.  L.  Velie,  of  Moline,  Illinois ; 
Fudora,  now  Mrs.  J.  J.  Gray,  of  Chicago,  Illinois;  and 
Elizabeth,  the  wife  of  William  Wallace,  Jr.,  of  Helena. 
Mrs.  Flowerree  died  in  1882.  On  February  4,  1885, 
Mr.  Flowerree  married  [Miss  Elizabeth  F.  Cornelius,  also 
of  Missouri.  One  son,  Daniel  A.  G.,  Jr.,  was  born  to 
them. 

Mr.  Flowerree  possessed  in  a  marked  degree  the  quali- 
ties of  the  school  of  life  that  developed  him.  His  name 
was  a  synonym  for  rugged  honesty  and  square  deal- 
ing, fearlessness,  generosity,  great-heartedness  and  un- 
tiring energy.  The  possessor  of  a  keen  native  wit.  he 
was  noted  for  his  quaint  humor  and  his  singular  apt- 
ness in  repartee.  He  was  affiliated  with  the  Democratic 
party,  but  solely  from  motives  of  principle,  as  he  never 
sought  personal  advancement  or  office  favors  of  any 
kind  through  the  medium  of  politics,  although  such  men 
as  he  make  the  greatest  leaders  in  any  activities  they 
may  embrace,  and  the  public  might  well  turn  to  men  of 
his  stamp  for  direction  in  a  political  way. 

Thousands  of  friends  and  admirers  of  the  deceased 
pioneer  gathered  in  Helena  to  pav  tribute  to  the  mem- 
ory of  the  man,  on  November  28.  1912,  when  the  last 
rites  were  observed.  The  funeral  was  held  from  the 
home  of  Mrs.  William  Davenport,  at  No.  522  North 
Rodnev  street,  and  the  services  were  conducted  by  Rev. 
J.  F.  McNamee.  whose  eulogy  of  the  decedent  was,  in 
part,  as  follows :  "One  who  knew  well  the  philosophv 
of  life  has  given  us  the  old  world  trutii  which  we  all 
must  learn:  'The  day  is  far  spent,  the  night  is  at  hand; 
the  time  cometh  when  no  man  can  work.'  Once  again 
the  word  is  given  us  to  licar.  as  at  the  close  of  a  long 


952 


HISTORY  OF  MONTANA 


day  of  life  the  night  cometh — the  time  of  cessation  from 
labor  to  one  of  our  old  and  respected  citizens. 

"Mr.  Flowerree  in  the  seventy-seventh  year  of  his 
life  has  been  called  hence  and  given  rest  from  toil  and 
physical  infirmity.  Like  many  another  who  came  to 
Montana  in  the  early  days  of  her  history,  his  story  is 
that  of  the  enduring,  ambitious,  achieving  youth  and 
man  who  has  made  a  place  for  himself  in  the  memory 
and  heart  of  a  multitude.  For  him,  indeed,  it  was  a 
long  day,  and  now  in  its  close,  the  friends  assembled 
here  to  ofifer  their  tributes  of  respect,  must  surely 
think  of  those  fundamental  truths  which  make  their 
appeal  to  all. 

"Much  of  the  best  in  many  people  whom  I  ha\e  known 
is  not  proclaimed  upon  the  house  tops.  It  is  quiet, 
unobtrusive  and  silent ;  yet  there  is  good  there,  there 
is  kindness  and  help  and  sympathy  and  love.  Like  the 
coming  of  the  day  upon  the  grass  and  flowers,  or  the 
approach  of  the  morning  sun  to  the  golden  doors  of  the 
east,  not  a  footfall  is  heard,  not  a  trumpet  sounds,  not 
a  saluting  gun  is  fired;  yet  they  come,  and  because  they 
come  some  barren  place  is  revived,  some  drooping 
flower  lifts  its  head,  some  discouraged  soul  looks  up 
and  takes  courage.  Like  so  many  of  these  earlier  nfen 
of  Montana,  who  saw  the  rougher  side  of  life  and  en- 
dured the  hardships  incident  to  formative  days  of  so- 
cial evolution,  Mr.  Flowerree  was  big-hearted  and  gen- 
erous ;  keen  and  prudent  in  business  which  grew  in  di- 
mensions, he  was  open-handed  and  unselfish.  Many  an 
old  friend  and  acquaintance,  down  on  his  luck,  knew 
where  he  could  turn  for  help,  and  indeed  many  could 
testify  that  they  did  not  need  to  ask,  as  it  was  enough 
that  they  were  in  need  to  find  his  helping  hand  ready. 
As  a  father,  husband  and  friend  he  was  loved.  As  a 
citizen  he  was  esteemed.  He  did  what  he  could  as  he 
knew  it,  as  life  appeared  to  him,  as  the  unselfish  spirit 
led  him  in  the  way  of  sympathetic  helpfulness  to  ex- 
press the  best  within  him." 

Many  stories  are  told  of  the  innate  generosity  of 
Mr.  Flowerree  and  of  his  square  dealing  and  loyalty 
to  friends.  It  is  told  of  him  that  during  the  panic  of 
1893.  to  save  a  Helena  bank  from  going  to  the  wall,  in 
which  a  personal  friend  was  interested,  ^Ir.  Flowerree 
borrowed  $400,000  in  cash  from  a  Chicago  commission 
house,  depositing  it  in  the  threatened  institution, 
through  which  timely  aid  it  was  saved  from  failure  and 
enabled  to  weather  the  financial  storms  of  that  mem- 
orable time. 

The  funeral  of  Mr.  Flowerree  was  held  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Society  of  Montana 
Pioneers,  and  many  of  the  prominent  citizens  of  Helena 
assisted  as  active  and   honorary  pallbearers. 

JoHX  McDonnell.  Gallatin  county  has  no  more 
highly  respected  pioneer  family  than  that  of  McDonnell, 
the  founders  of  which,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  McDonnell, 
are  now  living  quietly  in  Bozeman,  enjoying  the  fruits, 
of  long  years  of  labor  on  the  ranches  of  this  section, 
whence  they  came  nearly  a  half  a  century  ago.  During 
tlieir  long  and  useful  careers  they  have  done  much  to 
aid  the  rnaterial  development  of  the  Gallatin  valley,  and 
well  merit  the  esteem  in  which  they  are  universally 
held.  John  McDonnell  was  born  in  County  Tipperary. 
Ireland,  February  26,  1833,  and  is  a  son  of  John  and 
Judith  (McCormick).  natives  of  the  Emerald  Lsle  who 
immigrated  to  the  United  States  during  their  latter 
years  and  spent  the  remainder  of  their  lives  in  agricul- 
tural pursuits  in  New  York  state,  where  both  died. 
They  had  a  family  of  six  children,  of  whom  four  still 
survive:  John;  Nicholas,  who  is  engaged  in  the  foun- 
dry and  locomotive  business  at  Des  Moines,  Iowa; 
Michael,  a  resident  of  Bozeman ;  and  Mary,  wife  of 
John  Cutler,  living  near  Winterset,  Iowa. 

John  McDonnell  secured  his  preliminary  educational 
trainmg  in  the  schools  of  his  native  country,  and  as  a 
youth  determined  to  try  his  fortunes  in  far-ofT  America. 


When  he  had  accumulated  enough  funds  for  the  jour- 
ney, he  left  Limerick  for  Quebec,  Canada,  whence  he 
arrived  after  a  voyage  of  seven  weeks  on  a  sailing 
vessel,  and  then  journeyed  on  to  the  home  of  an  uncle 
in  New  Jersey,  where  for  four  years  he  was  engaged 
in  farming.  In  1857  he  removed  to  the  vicinity  of 
Dcs  Moines,  Iowa,  where  he  followed  farming  and 
leased  land  until  1864,  on  April  5th,  of  which  year  he 
was  united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Harriet  C.  Stuff. 
She  was  born  near  Harper's  Ferry,  on  the  state  line 
between  Maryland  and  West  Virginia,  September  13, 
1851,  daughter  of  Jeremiah  and  Anna  Eliza  (New- 
comer) Stuff,  the  former  born  in  Germany,  September 
22,  1817,  and  died  May  4,  1861,  and  the  latter  born  in 
Maryland,  October  22,  1820,  and  died  in  1904.  They 
had  four  daughters  and  one  son,  all  of  whom  are  living. 
Mr.  Stuff  came  to  this  country  when  he  was  four  years 
of  age  on  a  sailing  vessel,  and  landed  at  Baltimore. 
In  1845  he  removed  to  Illinois,  settling  in  Ogle  county, 
sixty  miles  west  of  Chicago,  where  he  became  a  pioneer 
millwright,  and  subsequently  moved  to  Dixon,  Illinois, 
where   his    death   occurred. 

After  their  marriage,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  McDonnell  re- 
mained in  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  until  May  i6th  of  the 
same  year,  when  they  started  across  the  plains  for 
Montana,  or  Idaho,  as  it  was  then  called.  An  account 
of  their  journey,  as  prepared  by  Mrs.  McDonnell,  not 
only  describes  the  trip  thoroughly,  but  will  prove  an 
interesting  narrative  to  those  of  the  younger  genera- 
tion, as  illustrative  of  life  and  travel  in  the  pioneer 
days,  and  is  entitled: 

How  we  came  to  Montana  in  1864. 

"My  Dear  Young  Friends :  You  have  all  read  and 
heard  much  about  the  early  days  of  Montana.  I  am